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Seizer of Eagles 








HE NEARLY LIFTED ME FROM THE GROUND AS HE FURIOUSLY 
BEAT THE AIR WITH HIS GREAT WINGS {page 2 1 8 ) 


Seizer of Eagles 

BY 

JAMES WILLARD SCHULTZ / 

AUTHOR OF “the GOLD CACHE,” “loNE BULL’s MISTAKE*' 
“the WAR-TRAIL FORT,” ETC. 

/ ^ 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

FRANK E. SCHOONOVER / 



BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

miberj^tbe CambciDge 


1922 




COPYRIGHT, 1921 AND 1922, BY THB SPRAGUE PUBLISHING COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY JAMES WILLARD SCHULTZ 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 




CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED IN THB U.SJL 

Jl/N 1 7 1922 h 

©CI.A674621;i. 


NOTE 

This is a true story ; I have written it 
just as Old Sun told it to me. 

J. W. S. 





ILLUSTRATIONS 


He nearly lifted me from the ground as he 

FURIOUSLY BEAT THE AIR WITH HIS GREAT WINGS 

Frontispiece 

He painted my hair, my face, my hands with 

THE SACRED COLOR 7O 

Right there before me that bird changed into 

A MAN 102 

Our large party gathered in front of Heavy 
Runner’s lodge , 150 



Seizer of Eagles 


CPIAPTER I 

I N the long ago time of my youth, near sunset of 
a day in the New Grass moon, we saw Lone 
Man coming into camp with a large eagle upon his 
back. He was very tall, was Lone Man, yet the 
spread of the wings of the eagle was far more than 
the height of him. As he came on, the widespread 
wings danced in time to his steps; the broad tail of 
beautiful white, black-tipped feathers fluffed against 
his high-piled hair braids; the head of the bird 
swayed below the level of his knees. 

As he passed the lodges of the people, his eyes 
modestly upon his steps, men and women gave him 
much praise, and said one to another: “Sun loves 
this Lone Man, seizer of eagles; he has given him 
great power.” 

As he passed my grandmother and me, where we 


I 


Seizer of Eagles 

sat in front of our poor little lodge, she cried out 
loudly: ‘‘O Sun! Favor always this seizer of your 
sacred flyers in the far-up blue! O Sun! Give him 
long and happy life, I pray you!” 

And at that the man smiled at her, oh, so pleas- 
antly, and in his deep and powerful voice answered : 
“I am grateful for your prayer for me, O elder 
sister!” 

Ha! How his words lifted our hearts! He was 
not our relative, he was of another clan; we were 
very proud that he claimed relationship with us, 
poorest of all the poor in the great camp. I watched 
him go on to his beautiful lodge, its white skin 
painted with four large buffalo bulls in black, and 
below them a row of black-painted ravens, and 
then, turning, I said to my grandmother: ‘‘I want 
to be, I shall be, like him, a seizer of eagles!” 

“ So you may be when you reach his age — if you 
seek constantly the favor of Sun and he gives you, 
as he has given Lone Man, some of his great power,” 
she answered. 

“ But that is too far off! I want now to become a 


2 


Seizer of Eagles 

seizer of eagles! Now in this time of my youth!” I 
cried. 

‘‘Hush! Don’t talk so crazily! Well you know 
that boys or young men may not attempt that 
dangerous work; that only great and well-aged 
Sun priests — and but few even of them — become 
seizers of the far-blue flyers,” she scolded. 

I watched Sun go down behind the great moun- 
tains, still white with winter snow, and how I 
wished that, like our far-back ancestor. Scar Face, 
I could trail him to his far-off island home and beg 
him to give me a powerful medicine, something 
that would enable me, boy that I was, to seize all 
the eagles that I wanted: tens of eagles; hundreds 
of them. The air suddenly became cold; we went 
inside to my mother, broiling some buffalo meat 
for our evening meal. 

Only two winters back we had been well off, for 
my father kept our lodge well supplied with hides 
and furs and fat meats, and our horse herd num- 
bered more than fifty head. And then he went to 
war, leading a party of seven to raid the camp of 
3 


Seizer of Eagles 

the Assiniboines, and none of them ever returned. 
How we mourned for him — still mourned for 
him! Soon after his going, we lost our horses, an 
enemy war party driving them off one night, every 
one of them. With the passing of my father, the 
support of our lodge rested upon me, and I had seen 
but sixteen winters. Men there were, some of 
them great warriors and rich, who offered to marry 
my mother and care for the three of us, but she 
would have none of them; to all she answered 
that her man was waiting for her in the Sand Hills 
and she belonged to him and to him alone. Well, 
the people were kind to us; this one and that one 
gave us a horse, slow old animals, but enough of 
them to enable us to move camp. I herded horses 
for one and another of the warriors and they gave 
us what meat we needed, and now and then a 
buffalo hide, sometimes the skin of an elk or deer. 

In this New Grass moon I was beginning my 
eighteenth summer, and was now keeping our lodge 
supplied with all the meat and hides that we could 
use. I had a good bow and a quiverful of sharp 
4 


Seizer of Eagles 

arrows. Kind-hearted men loaned me their fast 
runners and I would join in the chase of a herd of 
buffalo and kill several of the big animals. Now 
and then I managed to kill deer and elk; enough of 
them for my mother to tan all the soft leather 
that we needed for our clothing. But just to keep 
the three of us fed and clothed did not satisfy me; I 
wanted to have fast buffalo horses of my own; a 
big lodge; a gun; beaver traps; blankets and pretty 
clothes from the trader for my mother and grand- 
mother. There was but one way for me to get all 
these things, and that way was by the war trail; 
to raid the camps of our enemies and trade some of 
the horses I would take for the white men’s goods. 
But no war party would take me on, even as a ser- 
vant. I was too young, the chiefs told me. I had 
not endured the sacred fast and had no Sun power, 
so would but bring bad luck to any war party that 
I joined. They said, also, that I was still too young 
to go out and fast. That I must cease childish play- 
ing; quiet down and frequent the lodges of the Sun 
priests and listen to their wise talk; then, after two 
S 


Seizer of Eagles 

more winters, I could go out and fast with good 
hope that the gods would heed my prayers and give 
me of their wonderful power. 

But now, on this New Grass moon evening, and 
regardless of my grandmother’s words, I believed 
that I saw a way quicker than that of the war trail 
to the riches I wanted. Eagle tail feathers were the 
most valuable of all the things that our people used. 
A single tail of them was worth ten good horses, or 
twenty beaver skins; and at the fort of the Red- 
coats here in the North, or the fort of the Long 
Knives, south on Big River, one could get a good 
gun for forty beaver skins, traps for four skins 
each, blankets for four skins. I clapped my hands 
and cried out to my mother: “Now, in this sum- 
mer that is just here, I shall become a seizer of 
eagles! Before winter comes again, you and grand- 
mother and I shall have all the white men’s goods 
that we need, and a herd of fine horses tool’^ 

My mother smiled across the fire at me, the lov- 
ing, pitying, patient smile that mothers give their 
young, and gently shook her head as she answered: 

6 


Seizer of Eagles 

‘‘Oh, not this summer, my son! Not for many, 
many summers to come; not until you are as old as 
Lone Man, and like him, a priest of Sun!’’ 

“Just what I told him!” said my grandmother. 

“I don’t care if I am young!” I cried. “My 
arms are strong! I know that I have the strength 
to seize an eagle, pull him down into a pit, and 
crush the life from his body!” 

“And no doubt you have, too, that other power. 
Sun power, that will keep your face and hands safe 
from the eagle’s beak and claws,” my grandmother 
exclaimed, frowning at me. 

“Understand, my son, that the beak and claws 
of the eagle are as poisonous as the fangs of a rattle- 
snake,” said my mother. “Flesh that is pierced by 
them swells, turns black, and the seizer so stricken 
soon dies. That is why so very few even of the Sun 
priests become seizers of eagles. They fear the black 
death!” 

“Ha! Who cares for the bird’s head! I shall 
seize eagles! I shall, I shall seize eagles!” I loudly 
asserted, and made my mother laugh; but my 
7 


Seizer of Eagles 

grandmother frowned still more deeply as she 
leaned forward and barked to me : ‘^Do try to cease 
your crazy chatter, magpie!’^ 

I ate the last small mouthful of my portion of 
meat, took up my robe and went outside. Night 
had come and the lodges of the great camp were all 
redly glowing with the little fires within them. In 
all of them the people were eating their evening 
meal, and happily talking and laughing, and I said 
to myself that I would be happy, too; that, no mat- 
ter what my grandmother said to discourage me, I 
would not be discouraged! Beginning right then, 
that very evening, I would seek and seek all pos- 
sible ways to become a seizer of eagles, and never 
turn back on my trail to it. In the bright moon- 
light I saw three or four of my boy friends ap- 
proaching ; they were coming to call me to play with 
them. I went around behind the lodge, and as they 
entered it I slipped off across camp to Lone Man’s 
lodge, and with fast-beating heart raised the door 
curtain and stepped inside; stood open-mouthed 
before the fire, nervously plucking at the edges of 
8 


Seizer of Eagles 

my robe. I had thought to find the great man alone 
with his family; instead, I had come in upon a 
gathering of chiefs and warriors. Several of them 
were seated upon his right ; on his left there was not 
a vacant place all the way around the circle to the 
doorway; his wives and young filled all the space 
on my left. He was speaking as I entered, and now 
paused and looking up at me inquired: 

“Yes, my son. What want you?” 

“Nothing. Nothing. I just came in,” I stam- 
mered, expecting that he would tell me that I 
could turn about and leave. 

But no! Instead of that he said to me: “Be 
seated, then, if you can find a place.” 

How his kind words lifted me. There was space 
for me at the side of his youngest wife, sitting 
nearest the doorway. I stepped back and got 
down beside her, and she gave me a smile and 
squeezed my hand as she said: “Kyi! Little 
Otter, good son of a good mother, I am proud 
that you sit beside me. But a little time from 
now and you will be sitting over there!” And 
9 


Seizer of Eagles 

she pointed to her man’s right where were seated 
two great chiefs. 

Let me explain that a Sun priest named me 
Little Otter when I was born. Like all boys, I was 
anxious for the time to come when, because of some 
brave thing that I had done, I should be entitled to 
stand before the people and be given a new — a 
warrior name. 

‘‘Well, as I was about to say when the boy came 
in,” Lone Man went on, with a glance around at 
his guests, “it was soon after sunrise that I seized 
the eagle I brought in. I then quickly put more 
liver in the side of my stuffed wolf, carefully re- 
placed the roof sticks that I had scattered when I 
made my seizure, and again lying down, waited 
for another eagle to appear. Sun climbed up and 
up in the blue and none appeared. Certain things 
I did to bring another, and at last, after Sun passed 
the middle and began to descend into the west, 1 
saw one sailing around and around far above me. 
He circled for a very long time, keeping at the same 
height, and I feared that he never would come 


lO 


Seizer of Eagles 

down. At last I repeated the things that I had done 
to call him from his far-off quest of food, and pres- 
ently down he came swift as lightning and making 
that lightning-like loud ripping of the blue that 
causes the heart of the seizer to beat fast with hope. 

‘‘Ha! When he had come down so near that I 
could plainly see the bright eyes in his head, he 
spread his tail and reset his wings and turned 
quickly up and then off to the south out of my 
sight, and never came back. I could not under- 
stand that. Do all that I would, I could not call 
him back. At last I gave up. I thrust aside my roof 
covering and stood up, and was face to face with 
three big wolves, lying all in a row not ten steps 
from me. They sprang up, stared at me, and 
turned and ran off down the butte. Was n’t I 
angry at them! They had lain there all day, no 
doubt, and of course kept the eagle from me! And 
so I came home. I think it very strange that the 
wolves came and lay down so near me, and re- 
mained there for so long a time.” 

“No, I don’t think it strange,” said one of the 


II 


Seizer of Eagles 

guests. ‘‘They smelled the buffalo liver that you 
had stuck into the side of your stuffed wolf skin, 
and they wanted it; but they also got some scent of 
you, so just lay down, waiting for night. In the 
darkness they intended to sneak in and seize the 
liver.’’ 

All the guests agreed that the speaker was right. 
Lone Man filled another pipe, lit it, and it went 
the round of the circle. The talk turned to other 
things, but I paid no attention to it. I sat on and 
on beside the woman, thinking, thinking until my 
head ached. Like one in a dream I saw the pipe 
smoked out; presently refilled and passed around 
again. At last the host knocked the ashes from the 
big bowl and told the men that they could go. 
They filed out past me, and when the last one of 
them had dropped the door curtain in place, the 
women and children moved back to their different 
couches. And still I sat there, now almost bursting 
with a question that I wanted to ask, yet feared, to 
put into words. 

The great man eyed me two or three times, and 


12 


Seizer of Eagles 

at last said; ‘‘There is something you want, my 
son?’^ 

“Oh, yes, there is something! I want to be a 
seizer of eagles! Oh, tell me! Tell me what are 
those things that you do to call the eagles to you 
from their far-away flying?” I cried. 

“Kyai-yo! But what a crazy boy this is!” 
droned the great one’s head wife. I never had liked, 
and now as she uttered those taunting words I 
hated, her. 

But Lone Man gave me a pleasant smile and his 
eyes were very kind as he answered : “My son, you 
ask of me the impossible; that which Sun has re- 
vealed to me in my sleeping visions I can reveal to 
no one. It seems to me you should have known 
that.” 

“Oh, I did know it, but I thought that, perhaps 
— perhaps — ” I stammered, and sprang up and 
fled from the lodge, that head wife’s shrill laughter 
following me out into the night. I ran home ; burst 
into the lodge and tumbled down upon my couch. I 
was so low-hearted that tears came into my eyes! 

13 


Seizer of Eagles 

‘‘What troubles you?” my mother demanded. 

“I asked Lone Man what he did to call eagles to 
him, and his sits-beside-him woman said that I was 
crazy — laughed at me,” I answered. 

“She spoke truth; you are crazy; only a crazy 
one would ask a Sun priest to tell that which is be- 
tween him and the Above Ones!” my grandmother 
exclaimed. 

“I thought that he might give me at least a hint 
of what he does in his pit on the butte top — ” 

“Oh, why are you so cross, so sharp-tongued? 
It must be that you hate him, your very own 
grandson!” my mother interrupted. 

“I am cross with him for his own good; to make 
him see his mistakes; to keep him straight on the 
trail that he must follow!” my grandmother 
sharply told her. 

“Well, you need n’t shout at him so loudly that 
the whole camp turns ears to listen to your scold- 
ings!” 

I don’t know what more was said, for I was up 
again and hurrying from the lodge. I ran across 

14 


Seizer of Eagles 

camp to the circle of the Fights Alone clan, and 
pausing and listening at the doorway of a great 
Sun priest, heard no talk. I entered and found the 
old man alone with his old wife. He was half-blind 
and asked who had come in; she told him, and he 
motioned me to a seat on his left, and at once 
seemed to forget my presence, staring dully at the 
fire and murmuring to himself. He straightened up 
with a start when I said to him that I had come to 
ask his help: “Tell me, oh, tell me how I may 
become a seizer of eagles — not many, many win- 
ters hence, but right now in the summer that has 
come with this New Grass moon,” I pleaded. 

It was a long time before he answered, slowly, in 
low voice, never ceasing his dull staring at the fire: 
“We were five, five seizers of eagles, but Old Sun, 
greatest seizer of us all, is dead and so we are but 
four; Lone Man, Black Bull, Yellow Antelope, and 
myself, and, blind, I no longer go to the pits. To- 
gether we made a vow by Sun that we would never 
teach any one our seizing secrets, and we keep our 


Seizer of Eagles 

I looked across the fire at the old woman; she 
nodded her head to me, signed to me that it was 
best I go. I went. I remembered Old Sun, he had 
died early in the winter and in very old age, more 
than eighty winters. I said to myself that I would 
earn the right to his name, soon earn it. It was a 
good name, a great name. Old Sun. I stood still 
and looked up and cried: ‘‘O Night Light! Help 
me — ask your husband to help me in all that I 
undertake to do!” And I knew that she under- 
stood. I felt better as I returned home. 

Late though it was, I found my mother and 
grandmother still sitting up, both embroidering 
moccasins for me by the light of the little fire. I 
did not much care what I wore, but they said that, 
poor though we were, I should not go about in 
mean clothing; they kept me well supplied with 
shirts, leggins, moccasins of soft-tanned, clean, 
white leather of deer; and leather wraps for sum- 
mer, warm robes for winter wear. I was always as 
well dressed as the sons of the richest men of th( 
tribe. 

i6 


Seizer of Eagles 

*‘This time, doubtless, you have been over in 
Mountain Chiefs lodge,” said^ my grandmother, as 
I sat down upon my couch. 

‘‘Yes. And there learned something; he, and all 
the other seizers of eagles of this tribe, long ago 
vowed by Sun that they would tell no one their 
seizing secrets.” 

“Mean, stingy men they are!” my mother ex- 
claimed. 

“Are not!” my grandmother cried. 

“Let us not talk about them,” I said. “Now, 
this night, it is plain to me what I must do to follow 
the trail that I have chosen. Now, right now, I 
cease to be one of these, my father’s people! South 
we go to your people, my mother! I feel that some 
of them will help me!” 

“No! No! I say no! As your father was, so are 
you, a member of this tribe, and must ever be!” 
my grandmother shouted to me. 

I looked from her to my mother, now bent over 
and shielding her face with her hands and crying. 
My grandmother turned to her, scowled at her, 

17 


Seizer of Eagles 

and said, threateningly: “Deer Woman! Stop 
that! I warn you — ’’ 

“Now, at last, I shall say it, that I have long 
been wanting to say! I shall no longer fear you, 
nor any one,” cried my mother as she suddenly 
sat up and faced the other. “He, here, is much 
more me than he is you ! I bore him, he is part of 
my body, it is for me, not you, to say what he shall 
do! Ever since his father died, I have wanted to 
return to my very own people — my son’s people, 
too. It shall be as he says; we go to them!” 

As she ceased speaking, I am sure that we both 
braced ourselves against that we felt was coming, 
a mighty scolding, a very thunder of words. But, 
no! For the first time in her life that stem, hard- 
willed old woman suddenly wilted; she drooped 
over in her seat ; the hard light went out of her 
eyes and her lips parted wide ; as one blinded, she 
felt about for her leather wrap, took it up, and 
went slowly out into the night. We stared after 
her; at the door curtain as it settled back into 
place ; and then at one another, 

i8 


Seizer of Eagles 

And then I said: “At last! For two years she 
has ruled us, scolded us! You are brave, my 
mother! You have freed us!” 

“My son, keep this in mind: she loves you, even 
as she did your father, her only son. You must 
ever be good to her,” my mother answered. 

“Of course! But from now on you and I manage 
our own lives.” 

We prepared to sleep. As we covered ourselves 
with our robes, we heard the old woman wailing 
far out on the plain beyond the edge of camp, call- 
ing over and over my father’s name, and that made 
us very sad. 

And now I must explain that my father had been 
a member of the Kaina tribe of our great Black- 
feet people, and that my mother belonged to the 
Small Robes clan of the Pikuni, the southernmost 
of the three tribes. At this time the Kaina were 
encamped on Belly River, and close up to the foot 
of the great mountains; the Pikuni were three days’ 
travel south of us, on Bear River, and the other 
tribe, the Siksika, were away north of us, some- 

19 


Seizer of Eagles 

where on Bow River. How did there come to be 
three tribes of us, speaking the one language? 

I will tell you: 

In the very long ago, soon after Old Man made 
the world, there was in a far, wooded country a 
man who had three sons, all married. Game be- 
came very scarce, so hard to find that the people 
began to starve. So one day this man said to his 
sons: ‘‘If we remain here we must all die. I pro- 
pose that we move to a new country; just keep go- 
ing until we do find plenty of game.” The sons 
thought that a good plan, and ordered their wives 
to pack the dogs. They then all set out, the old 
man and his wives, the three sons and their wives 
and children, and traveled for a very long time, 
finding very little game, barely enough to keep 
life in their bodies. And then, when they were very 
low-hearted, they one day passed from the timber 
out upon a wide grassy plain, and saw upon it 
great herds of buffalo, animals that they had never 
seen before. They made camp at once and the - 
three sons tried to kill some of the buffalo, but 


20 


Seizer of Eagles 

could get nowhere near them. That night, there in 
sight of all those great herds of strange, black ani- 
mals, the four families went to bed hungry. But 
in the night the old man had a vision; was told 
what to do. In the morning he prepared a black 
medicine, rubbed some of it upon his eldest son’s 
feet, and the young man ran out, ran so swiftly 
that he chased a herd of buffalo, overtook it, and 
killed all the animals that the little camp could use. 
That evening, after all had feasted, the old man 
said to his eldest son: “Because of your great deed 
this day I give you a new name. I name you, Sik- 
sika!” 

At that the other two sons were somewhat jeal- 
ous. They asked their father to give them new 
names — honor names. He thought for a time and 
said to them that he could not do that until they 
had performed great deeds. He would give them 
some of the black medicine, of course, so that they 
could kill buffalo, but they must go away, go out 
upon discovery and earn new names. The two de- 
cided to do that. One went off south, the other 


21 


Seizer of Eagles 

east, and were gone a very long time. He who went 
south returned with a pack of strange and fine 
clothing that he had taken from enemies he killed, 
so his father named him Pikuni. The other son 
brought scalps and weapons of enemy chiefs that 
he had killed, so his father named him Kaina. 
Thus was the beginning of our three tribes — 
Siksika, Blackfeet; Pikuni, Wearing Apparel; 
Kaina, Many Chiefs. 

So, now, here was I, half Pikuni and half Kaina, 
and because of my father, a member of the Kaina 
tribe. As our little lodge fire burned down to dim 
coals, my grandmother returned from her mourn- 
ing, and when she had come in and put a few sticks 
on to blaze, she said to me : ‘‘Yes, we will go to the 
Pikuni, but promise me, son of my son, that you 
will some day return with me to these, your fa- 
ther’s people.” 

And I answered: “This I promise you; when I 
shall have earned the right to the great name I 
want, I will return and ask the Kaina Sun priests 
to give it me.” 


22 


Seizer of Eagles 

Singing in our lodge awoke me; happy singing. 
I could hardly believe my ears. For the first time 
since the passing of my father, two winters back, 
my mother was singing! She was already begin- 
ning to pack up our few belongings. She called to 
me to hurry; to go to the river and bathe, then 
bring in the horses. As soon as I had done that 
we would eat, saddle and pack the animals, and 
start south to the Pikuni. I saw that my grand- 
mother was putting her own poor things into a 
couple of worn old parfleches. I saw, too, that she 
was very sad ; that there were tears in her eyes ; that 
her hands were trembling. As I passed out of the 
lodge, I told her to take heart ; that in time she would 
be glad enough of what we were setting out to do. 

Into the river I splashed with a number of my 
boy friends, and then, while we were dressing, told 
them that I was leaving them, was going that very 
morning on the trail south to the Pikuni. They 
begged me not to go. While I was bringing in the 
horses, they ran to their homes and spread the 
news, and by the time I got in with the animals, 

23 


Seizer of Eagles 

there in front of our lodge were Eagle Ribs and 
several of his under-chiefs scolding my mother, 
telling her that she must be crazy, else she would 
not think of going off south — just she and grand- 
mother, with only a boy to protect them. The 
plains were alive with enemy war parties; we 
would never live to see Bear River and the camp 
of the Pikuni. 


CHAPTER II 


M y mother looked from them to me, and I 
said to them : “ Enemies or not, we must 
go! I have to go! And, somehow, it is given me 
to feel that we shall survive the dangers and in 
good time enter the camp of the South People.’’ 

“As he says, so do we,” my mother told the 
chiefs. 

“I am old; it matters not how soon I go to the 
Sand Hills,” said my grandmother. 

And at that the chiefs turned angrily away. 
Eagle Ribs saying to us over his shoulder: “Well, 
we have warned you ; it will be by no fault of ours 
that you all die, somewhere out there!” 

We went inside and had a hurried meal, then 
down came our lodge, and many women friends 
helped my mother saddle and pack the horses. 
My young friends surrounded me, wondering how 
I could have the heart to part from them. Came 
more men and advised me to give up all thought 
25 


Seizer of Eagles 

of going south until such time as the tribe would 
go to camp and hunt with the Pikuni, several 
moons later on. I told them, as I had the chiefs, 
that I could not wait; that I felt an urge to go, and 
must obey it. Our three pack-horses were soon 
loaded ; the poles of our little lodge were lashed to 
the saddle sides; then we three mounted each one 
slow old animal and I took the lead. As we drew 
out from camp, my grandmother cried so pitifully 
that all the camp dogs mourned with her; not until 
we were far out upon the plain did she dry her 
tears. All that time I kept watching my mother; 
her eyes were shining and there was a smile upon 
her lips. I heard her murmur: ‘‘At last! At last 
I am to rejoin my very own people!” 

It was not long after noon of that day when we 
topped a low ridge and looked down into the val- 
ley of Many Dead Chiefs River, the southernmost 
of the streams that flow north into the Always- 
Winter land. Up and down the sparsely timbered 
valley as far as we could see, and beyond it up the 
long slope of Little River Ridge, were countless 
26 


Seizer of Eagles 

bands and herds of buffalo and antelope resting, 
grazing, and others going to and from the water. 

We brought our horses to a stand and watched 
them for a time, and my mother said to me: “If 
we go on across the river they will run from us in 
all directions, and so bring down upon us any 
enemies that may be in hiding hereabout. ” 

“We are not going on,” I told her. “We will 
follow down this coulee to the river and cache our- 
selves in the willows until night.” 

The coulee headed right where we stood ; we rode 
into it, and down it to the water without frighten- 
ing any of the game, and there, after watering our 
animals, we unpacked them and picketed them in 
the high, thick brush, and rested and slept until 
sundown. We then ate some pemmican, packed 
up and forded the river, and drew out of the val- 
ley, leaving the mountain trail of our people and 
heading southeast. There was no moon; band after 
band of buffalo that we could not see went rushing 
out of our way with great thunder and rattle of 
hooves. We did not care; no enemies could see the 
27 


Seizer of Eagles 

cause of the commotion. The gentle night wind 
was heavy with the odor of new-growing sage and 
greasewood crushed by the hooves of the fleeing 
game ; it was very pleasant in our nostrils. 

Said my mother; “Oh, how I love it, that strong, 
crushed-weeds odor! It makes me light-hearted; 
I just want to sing of my happiness, sing as loud 
as I can!’’ 

“Oh, do so! Our enemies out there in the dark- 
ness will be so glad to hear you!” my grandmother 
scolded. 

And just then, close on our right, a lone wolf be- 
gan to howl, and others, near and far and all around, 
took up his cry. Long and loud and deep they 
howled. “I do not need to sing; they sing for me,” 
said my mother. Oh, how we loved it, the howling 
of the wolves! It was thus that they talked with 
one another. There have been times when I felt 
that I was almost on the point of understanding 
what they said. 

All through the night we plied our quirts and 
kept our slow old animals on a trot. We early 
28 


Seizer of Eagles 

crossed the North Fork of Little River, then its 
South Fork, these the northernmost waters of Big 
River (the Missouri), and at the edge of the last 
one we got down and drank. 

Then my mother laughed happily and said to 
me: “There, my son! We have drunk from one of 
our very own streams! Oh, how I love it, and all 
those other streams of our Pikuni country, away 
off there to the south! Beautiful streams in beau- 
tiful wooded valleys. Valleys rich with berries in 
summer, and in winter warmly sheltering the 
people from Cold-Maker’s winds and storms. 
How much more pleasant is our country than the 
North country of the Kaina and the Siksika!” 

My grandmother snorted. “Ha! What nothing- 
talk that is!” she cried. We did not answer her. 
“And anyhow,” she went on, “this South country 
belongs to us Kaina, and the Siksika, just as much 
as it does to the Pikuni.” 

“Yes, that is true, but I notice that the Kaina 
and the Siksika camp in the North the most of the 
time, leaving the Pikuni to fight alone the Crows, 
29 


Seizer of Eagles 

Assiniboincii, and other enemies who would take 
this rich South country from us/’ my mother told 
her. And to that she could make no reply. 

Soon after daylight we struck Cutbank River, just 
above its walled canyon in the prairie, and made 
camp in a grove of cottonwoods and willows. As 
soon as we had taken the loads off the horses, I drove 
them to water, and in a sandbar running out into 
the stream I came upon the fresh tracks of a war 
party of twenty or more men. In the wet, hard sand 
at the edge of the water were the imprints of their 
hands and knees where they had sprawled out to 
drink, and from there they had gone on up the 
valley. My heart beat fast as I stared at the tim- 
ber upstream, and at the slopes of the valley as 
far up as I could see them. Not a head of any kind 
of game was in sight. I feared that the enemy 
might be in hiding for the day close to us. I hur- 
ried the horses back into the timber, and told the 
women what I had found, and they were so fright- 
ened that for once even my grandmother was 
speechless. We resaddled and repacked the horses 
30 


Seizer of Eagles 

in no time, and mounting, and plying our quirts 
with all our strength, rode out of that timber on 
the jump, the dragging lodge-poles filling the val- 
ley with the noise of their rattling. Across the 
river we went with great splashings, and out over 
the open bottom and up the slope to the edge of the 
plain, and there made a halt and looked back. 
Right where I had watered the horses the enemy 
were lined along the sandbar, staring up at us, 
and as we came to a stand they let off their guns 
and some of the balls thudded into the ground 
very close to us; and then they let out loud, mock- 
ing yells, and we lashed our horses and got out of 
their sight and kept going as fast as we could off 
across the plain. 

On a high ridge midway between Cutbank and 
the Two Medicine Lodges River we let our sweat- 
wet horses rest, and looked back at the trail that 
we had made, and saw that the enemy were not 
following us. We remained there a long time and 
made sure of that, and talked about our narrow 
escape from them, and gave thanks to Sun for it. 

31 


Seizer of Eagles 

I said then, and I believe to this day, that Sun led 
me to that sandbar and those enemy tracks in it. 
There they were, those twenty and more men, 
hiding close by — up the river a little way; had I 
watered the horses below the sandbar — well, we 
should never have left that timber, for that was the 
one place in a long shore-line that revealed the 
enemy tracks; above and below, slopes of coarse 
stones and large rocks ran down into the stream; 
even a passing herd of buffalo would have left no 
trail in them. 

We went on as soon as our horses were rested, 
and at noon struck the Two Medicine Lodges 
River, so named because, in a summer in the long 
ago, the Pikuni and the Kaina each built a lodge to 
Sun in its lower valley. We made camp beside the 
river in a long, wide, timberless bottom, and after 
watering the horses, we picketed them close by, 
removing their packs, but not the saddles. Here 
we felt fairly safe. Enemies could not possibly 
sneak in upon us; if any came in sight, we should 
have plenty of time to pack up and make our es- 

32 


Seizer of Eagles 

cape. With flint and steel my mother made a fire 
with dry driftwood that my grandmother brought 
from the river slope, and then, opening one of our 
parfleches, she got out some dried buffalo meat 
and roasted it for us. 

As soon as we finished eating, my mother or- 
dered grandmother and me to lie down and sleep 
while she kept watch on the country. I made her 
promise to awake me in the middle of the after- 
noon, so that she could have some sleep, and so be 
fresh for the long night ride that we were to make. 
She did not keep her word ; Sun was not far above 
the mountains when she called me. I sat up and 
scolded her, but she just laughed and was herself 
asleep before I finished. My grandmother slept on. 

We had but one dog, a big, wolflike female that 
had lost her newborn pups a few nights back; she 
had gone away from camp to have them, and we 
thought it likely that while she was out from her 
hole hunting food, coyotes, or perhaps a lynx, had 
killed them. Now, as I sat there on the edge of the 
river-bank and watched all up and down the valley, 
33 


Seizer of Eagles 

I saw that Sinuski (Striped Face) as I called her, 
was very uneasy; she kept thrusting up her head 
and sniffing the west wind — blowing fairly strong 
— and now and then mournfully whining. That 
made me uneasy; suspicious that danger of some 
kind threatened us. But look as I would, I could 
see nothing alarming. Every part of the grassy 
bottom stretching away up to the far timber was 
in view, and there was no living thing upon it. 
Midway between me and the timber, however, 
there was a small, breast-high patch of rose-brush 
on the slope of the river-bank, and I decided that 
in it was whatever was making the dog so restless. 
‘‘Sinus'ki!” I hissed to her. “Sinus'ki! What is it 
up there.? Go take it!” I spatted my hands to- 
gether and she was gone ; never had I seen her run 
so fast ; behind her rose a smoky trail of fine dust. 
I sprang up and fitted an arrow to my bow and 
called to the women; they came out of their sleep 
with a quick spring and we all ran to the horses; 
as we began untieing their picket ropes, we saw 
Sinuski leap into the rose-brush. No enemy sprang 
34 


Seizer of Eagles 

out from it; we heard no outcry; the brush quiv- 
ered where the dog made her way into it. Ropes 
in hand, we just stood and stared; stared curiously; 
fear had left us. And then, soon, we saw the dog 
come out from the brush with something light- 
colored drooping from her mouth. It was some- 
thing alive, we could see it wiggle ; she came trot- 
ting toward us, head held high, and presently my 
mother cried out that it was a wolf pup that she 
brought. So it was. A fuzzy, gray-white wolf 
pup. Straight to me she came and dropped it 
sprawling at my feet, then rose up whining, placed 
her forepaws upon my shoulders and licked my 
face, and her eyes begged me to have pity for her 
find. 

^‘Yes, Sinuski! Yes. It shall be your wolf pup 
and mine,” I told her, and stooped and stroked the 
little one’s head and back. It didn’t try to flinch 
from me, nor bite. It feebly wagged its tail; it was 
very gaunt, as though it had had no milk for some 
days back. We wondered how its mother could 
have lost it. Sinuski lay down beside it and nuzzled 
35 


Seizer of Eagles 

it to her; it seized one of her swollen teats and 
drank thirstily with a loud sucking noise. 

We repicketed the horses and the women lay 
down and were soon sleeping again. I took up the 
wolf pup and carried it to the river-bank, Sinuski 
close at my heels. There I gave it back to her, and 
after taking more milk it went to sleep at her side. 
Pleased I was that she had found it, for I had 
often wished for a young wolf for a pet. I con- 
sidered a name for it, and, as it was a male, de- 
cided to call it Nipokana, or, for short, just Nipoka. 
Little did I think that day, as I sat there watch- 
ing it in its heavy, full-fed sleep, that it was to 
be my great helper, protector of my life, in time to 
come. 

Near sunset I aroused the women, and we ate 
more of our dried food, then packed up, and, cross- 
ing the river, and climbing the south slope, rode 
eastward along the ridge dividing the Two Medi- 
cine Lodges and Badger River valleys. Then we 
crossed the latter stream, and at midnight forded 
Birch Creek. There we rested for a time, and I got 

36 


Seizer of Eagles 

die wolf pup out of the sack in which I was carrying 
it, and let Sinuski nurse it. 

Bear River begins where Cutbank River runs 
into the waters of Two Medicine Lodges, Badger, 
and Birch Creek Rivers. When daylight came, we 
were out on the plain straight south of the head of 
the river, and at sunrise we rode down into its val- 
ley at a place we called Apukwitsipeska: Wide 
Willow Flat. No game of any kind was in sight, 
and in all the trails in the bottom were numerous 
horse tracks and dog tracks, sure signs that a big 
camp of people was not far off. Of course they 
could be no other than the Pikuni. ‘‘Oh, we shall 
soon be with them, our very own people!” my 
mother said, half-laughing and half-crying, and in 
a voice all trembly she began to sing and I sang 
with her. 

Twice we forded the river, and then came into a 
great bottom, the third one below Apukwitsipeska, 
and there, at its lower end, was the great camp 
of the Pikuni, hundreds and hundreds of lodges. 
The great herds of horses, thousands of head, had 
37 


Seizer of Eagles 

been driven in to water, those needed for the day 
had been caught, and the rest were now stringing 
their way out of the valley again to graze upon the 
plain. Far as the camp was from us, we could hear 
its droning, humming noise like a great swarm of 
bees, the talking, laughing, singing of men and 
women, shouting of children, barking of dogs, im- 
patient neighing of tethered horses. How we hur- 
ried then, close-herding our pack-animals along 
to keep them from joining the outgoing herds. 
We passed into the great circle of the camp, people 
greeting us on all sides. Straight through it we 
went to its east side and the more than two hun- 
dred lodges of the Small Robes clan, our own clan. 
We passed the huge, double lodge of Lone Walker, 
chief of our clan and chief, too, of the tribe. He 
was a great man; the greatest warrior, the wisest, 
most kind-hearted chief of all those of the three 
tribes of us plains people. 

And now women here and there began to cry out : 
“Here is Deer Woman, come back to us, and with 
her is Little Otter, her son!’* None of them, how- 
38 


Seizer of Eagles 

ever, paid any attention to my grandmother, rid- 
ing in our rear. They came crowding around us, all 
talking at once, as we drew up before the doorway 
of Heavy Runner’s lodge, he who was my moth- 
er’s elder brother — my uncle. His women came 
hurrying out and embraced us as we slid from our 
horses. We went inside and my mother ran across 
the lodge and knelt and threw her arms around my 
uncle and kissed him, and cried. He stroked her 
hair and said to her — and his voice was a little 
trembly: “There! There! Don’t cry, sister. lam 
so glad that you have returned to us, you and Little 
Otter. How he has grown! This is a good day; 
let us be happy in it.” 

My mother soon dried her tears and sat leaning 
against him, and he said tome: “Yes! How you 
have grown, nephew mine! You are almost a man! 
No doubt you have begun to hunt — to keep your 
mother well supplied with meat and skins? And 
now you will soon be taking your sacred fast?” 

“Oh, I am proud of him! He is a good hunter!” 
my mother cried. 


39 


Seizer of Eagles 

want to be a seizer of eagles,” I told him. 
‘‘Those Kaina Sun priests — seizers of eagles — 
would not help me. Will you help me, uncle? 
I want to seize many of the far-blue flyers now, this 
very summer!” 

My grandmother had come in and seated herself 
near the doorway: “Hal” she snorted. “He is still 
crazy! Heavy Runner, I can do nothing with this 
boy; tiy you to put some sense in his head!” 

My uncle laughed. “I like your talk,” he said to 
me. “It is good for the young to desire to do great 
things. In time to come, no doubt you will be a 
seizer of eagles. But now you have to endure your 
sacred fast. Then, having obtained your vision, 
you must go to war, many, many times. You must 
sit often with the Sun priests, listening to their 
wise talk, and you must yourself pray and make 
sacrifice to the gods. So doing, maybe by the time 
you have seen thirty or thirty-five winters, you 
can become a seizer of eagles.” 

By the time he had finished speaking, my heart 
was just about dead. I had been so sure that my 
40 


Seizer of Eagles 

uncle would help me to do what I wanted to do 
at once, and now he, just as the Kaina men had 
done, declared that only in far-oflF summers to 
come could I become a seizer of eagles ! I gave him 
no answer, but I said to myself: ‘‘All hopes and 
plans come to nothing; may as well give up all 
thought of becoming a seizer of eagles!” Yes, I 
felt very, very sad. 

My mother and grandmother went out to un- 
load the horses, and set up our little lodge. Some 
men came in to visit and smoke with my uncle, and 
I replied shortly to their requests for news of the 
Kaina. I did tell, however, about the war party 
from which we had so narrowly escaped, and be- 
fore I had quite finished, my uncle and his guests 
were hurrying from the lodge and shouting to the 
Ikunuhkahtsi ^ to bring in their fast horses and sad- 

^ I-kun-uh-kah-tsi: All Friends. The society of war- 
riors. It comprised twelve different bands: Little Birds, 
Pigeons, Mosquitoes, Braves, All Crazy Dogs, Raven Car- 
riers, Dogs, Tails, Homs, Kit Foxes, Seizers, Bulls. Of these, 
the Little Birds was the band which the youths first joined. 
The Braves, comprising great warriors, was the greatest 
of the bands. The Bulls was the very old men’s band. 

41 


Seizer of Eagles 

die them, and go in search of the enemy. A great 
roar of excitement arose in the camp; men were 
everywhere calling to their young herders to run 
in the herds; women began loudly to call upon 
Sun to protect their loved ones in the coming 
fight; children cried and dogs howled. I went out- 
side and watched the warriors assemble, and. then, 
when Lone Bull, our war chief, gave the word, go 
charging westward out from camp, singing at 
the top of their voices our tribal song of battle. 
Dressed all of them in their war clothes and war 
bonnets, and with shields uncased, they were a 
heart-stirring sight as they rode away. Watch- 
ing them, I for the time forgot my trouble. And 
then, when they had gone out of sight over the 
rim of the plain, it all came back; though Sun was 
shining in a clear sky, the day was black — all was 
black to me. 

Our lodge was set up. I called Sinuski to follow 
me inside, took the wolf pup from its sack, and 
gave it to her to nurse. My mother came in with 
food that my aunts had given her, pemmican, dried 
42 


Seizer of Eagles 

service berries, a set of roasted hump ribs from a 
cow buffalo, and she put some of it all before me, 
but I could not eat. Some women came in and 
began to chatter; then some boys came to visit 
with me. I could n’t talk with them. I took up the 
pup and went out, Sinuski at my heels, and climbed 
the valley slope and sat down on the rim of the 
plain. Sinuski whined for the pup. I let her have 
it, and lay down and slept. 

The low growling of the dog awoke me, and 
opening my eyes I saw that the day was gone; Sun 
had just trailed down behind the mountains. I sat 
up; an old man was approaching me, climbing 
slowly up the slope. He paused and raised his head 
and I saw that he was Red Wings, my mother’s 
uncle. He was a great Sun priest, owner of the 
sacred Thunder Pipe. 

^^Ha! Here you are!” he said, as he came on, 
and seated himself at my side. “Your mother 
said that I should find you here, and that you are 
very low-hearted. I come to lift your load of sad- 
ness.” 


43 


Seizer of Eagles 

^‘Show me how I may become a seizer of eagles, 
right now in the moons of this summer, and the 
load will be lifted,” I shortly — and no doubt 
crossly — answered. 

“Now, now, my son, be calm, think gently, 
speak gently; the gods know your thoughts, hear 
your words. Always bear that in mind,” he said. 

“They all say, the Kaina Sun priests, and my 
uncle, down there in camp, that many, many more 
summers must pass, and that I must myself be- 
come a Sun priest, before I even think about seiz- 
ing eagles.” 

He did not answer that at once, and I said to 
myself that I would get no help from him. I turned 
my back to him and watched the pup, heavy with 
the milk it had taken, sprawling all over Sinuski 
and playfully biting her, and I wished that I was 
as happy as he. 

Then the old man began to speak, at first more 
to himself than to me: “As I see it, the doing of 
sacred things need not depend upon one’s age ; it 
is only that the young are not of serious mind. 
44 


Seizer of Eagles 

Youths give but little thought to the gods; all that 
they think about, all that they care for is a good 
time; dancing; in fine clothes strutting around 
where the girls can see them; gambling; trapping, 
not for furs to wear, but wherewith to buy from the 
traders mirrors to hang from their wrists; bright 
paints for their faces ; fancy cloths for shirts. Now, 
if a youth would abstain from all this ~ if he would 
from the very beginning be of thoughtful mind, seek 
constantly knowledge of the gods and pray for their 
help— 

He ceased speaking, stared absently at the 
ground, and after a long wait I cried out: “You 
mean, then — ” 

“I mean this,” he broke in, with a loud spat of 
his hands: “Young though you are, it is possible 
that you may soon become a seizer of eagles if you 
will follow the trail that I mark out.” 

“Never once shall I step out of it!” I agreed. 

“Good! You must, then, at once endure your 
sacred fast,” he said. 

“And after I have done that, what next?” 

45 


Seizer of Eagles 

“I shall not tell you now. It is best that you 
think of but one thing at a time,” he answered. 

I took up the pup, and we started down the 
slope, I so encouraged, so happy that it was hard 
for me to keep at the old man’s side. I wanted to 
sing; to dance my way home to my mother and 
tell her what Red Wings was to do for me. 

When we entered the great circle of the lodges, 
the camp crier was making the round of them, 
pausing often to shout: “Listen! Listen, all you 
people, thus say your chiefs: ‘To-morrow morning 
camp is to be broken. We shall move up Two 
Medicine Lodges River to the mountains, where 
all who need new lodge-poles may cut them.’ ” 

This first moon of summer, the New Grass moon, 
was also called, in that long ago time. New Lodges 
moon, for it was at this season that the women, 
after tanning many cow buffalo hides — making 
soft, white leather of them — now cut them to 
proper shape and sewed them together, making 
new lodge-skins, and, of course, new lodge-poles 
were required for them. 

46 


Seizer of Eagles 

Said Red Wings to me, as we parted in front of 
his lodge: “This does please me, my son! The 
Two Medicine Lodges mountains are very Sun 
favored! I would rather you endure your fast there 
than in any other place in all our great country!’’ 


CHAPTER III 


I HAD thought the Kaina a rich and powerful 
tribe, but when, the next morning, I saw the 
Pikuni strung out upon the trail to the west, I 
learned that the Kaina were nothing compared to 
these my mother’s and my very own people. I saw 
that the Pikuni was by far the largest of the Black- 
feet tribes; that the men and women and children 
were all of them beautifully clothed; that their 
horse herds were as numerous as the grass of the 
plains, and that the animals in use carried all of 
them fine pack-saddles and riding-saddles with 
cruppers, breechings, and saddle-cloths all glit- 
tering with quill-work and bead-work of fine 
patterns, and colors of Old Man’s Lariat itself! I 
saw, too, that the men were better armed than 
those of the Kaina, and more alert; they rode their 
powerful, prancing horses with perfect ease, and 
with eager eyes kept watch upon the country, 
hoping always to discover a party of our enemies. 
At the head of the great caravan was our own clan, 
48 


Seizer of Eagles 

the Small Robes, almost a tribe itself, and well in 
the lead of it rode Lone Walker with his under- 
chiefs and several Sun priests. I said to myself 
that some day, not far off, I myself would be riding 
with them. 

Late in the afternoon of the second day out from 
Bear River, we made camp right in the mountains, 
at the foot of the lower one of the lakes of Two 
Medicine Lodges River. By the time night came, 
the women had the lodges up, wood and water at 
hand, and were cooking over their little fires. My 
mother was about to set food before me when Red 
Wings sent for me to feast with him, and I went to 
his lodge, a fine one of twenty-four skins, so more 
than large enough for himself, his four women, and 
a widowed daughter and her children. All around, 
inside, the lodge was lined with a band of beauti- 
fully painted leather, fastened to the poles and 
extending well above one’s head when standing. 
In the spaces between the couches were piled num- 
bers of shiny parfleches, painted with red and blue 
and green and yellow designs, and filled with the 
49 


Seizer of Eagles 

dried meats and pemmican, and clothing and 
various belor^gings of the family. With the setting 
of Sun, the old man’s sits-beside-him wife had 
brought in his Thunder Pipe, from the tripod be- 
hind the lodge to which it was fastened during 
the day, and it was now, in its many wrappings, 
tied to the lodge-poles just over his head, along 
with the several ancient, painted and fringed raw- 
hide pouches containing his sacred paints, per- 
fumes, and other things used in the ceremony of 
the pipe. I had never seen the pipe, but had heard 
of its wonderful power, and now, as I took my seat 
upon the couch at the old man’s left, I looked up at 
the roll with great respect and silently prayed: 
“Hai-yu! Ancient Thunder Pipe! Pity poor me!” 

‘‘Well, here we are in this place favored by Sun! 
My boy, are you still minded to do in all things as I 
advise?” the old man said to me. 

“Yes! Yes! No matter how hard your trail, I 
shall follow it,” I answered. 

And as he nodded his head in approval, the 
women clapped their hands, and one said to the 
SO 


Seizer of Eagles 

others: ‘^Sisters, we are going to be proud of our 
young Kaina relative!’’ 

That hurt me, and I cried out: Am I not just as 
much Pikuni as I am Kaina?” 

“Yes! And more! And before long you shall for- 
get the Kaina and be wholly one of us!” Red Wings 
soothed me. 

‘‘A promise to my grandmother is that I will 
return to the Kaina to ask them to give me the 
one great name that I want,” I told him. 

‘‘Well, you can keep that promise, and still be 
one of us. Having received the name, you can 
return to us and take your rightful place in this, 
our Small Robes clan,” he said. And added: “Tell 
me, now, what name is it that you want ?” 

It is not proper for one to mention his own name, 
nor a name that one desires, so I answered: “The 
name is that of a great Kaina Sun priest, an old 
man who died last summer, who in his time was the 
greatest of all the Kaina seizers of eagles.” 

“Ha! You mean Old Sun!” he cried. 

“Yes, that is the name I want to carry,” I said. 
SI 


Seizer of Eagles 

“Keep you the trail that I mark out, and it shall 
be yours!” he all but roared. 

And just then some visitors entered, and we were 
■all given large dishes of food. 

There was much joking and laughing during the 
feast, for all of which I had no heart; through it all 
my mind was wholly upon the great tasks that I 
knew I must endure. I prayed Sun to give me 
strength for them. After all had finished eating. 
Red Wings lit his great pipe and it went from hand 
to hand of the guests. Three pipefuls must be 
smoked before the old man could dismiss the visi- 
tors and give me his instructions, and I wished that 
all three could be smoked at one round. Then, just 
as, at last, the third pipe was about smoked out, 
into camp charged Lone Bull and his warriors, 
shouting at the top of their voices the victory song, 
and the people all hurried from their lodges to greet 
them. As we passed out, following the guests. 
Red Wings hurriedly said to me: “Take my gun 
and whichever of my horses you want and to- 
morrow kill plenty of meat for your lodge, for on 
52 


Seizer of Eagles 

the following day you begin upon the trail to that 
you desire.” 

Heavy though my thoughts were, I could not 
help joining in the greeting to our warriors. What 
excitement there was in the great camp circle! 
Women were everywhere shouting the names of 
their loved ones, praising their bravery, giving 
thanks to Sun for their safe return, and vowing, 
some of them, that, because he had protected 
them and brought them alive out of battle, they 
would build a great lodge for him in the coming 
Berries Ripe moon. And while the women shouted 
their praises, and sang, we crowded around the 
warriors, and after a time learned from them that 
they had come upon the Assiniboines on the open 
plain north of Cutbank River, and, chasing them as 
they would a band of buffalo, killed them all, them- 
selves receiving not even the slightest wound 1 It was 
far into the night when the excitement over the vic- 
tory ended and we took to our couches and slept. 

Sun was not high, the next morning, when my 
mother, grandmother, and I rode out from camp, 
S3 


Seizer of Eagles 

I on one of Red Wings’ fast buffalo horses, his 
flintlock gun in hand, and my bow and arrows upon 
my back. I had never fired a gun, and that was the 
first one I had ever carried. I felt so very proud 
of it that I led the way slowly, and made a snake- 
like course through camp so that many people 
would see me and think me a great hunter. The 
many of them gave me but a passing glance; the 
few who paused and called out, “Ha! Here goes 
Little Otter with a gun! Real hunter he is!” — 
these so pleased me that I just felt myself swell out 
with pride. I sat my horse as straight and stiff as a 
lodge-pole, digging a heel into his flank to make 
him prance, and pretending to be very busy hold- 
ing him in check. 

I led my women down the valley quite a long 
way, then across the river and north up onto the 
plain, here in the foothills so broken that we could 
see but a little way in any direction. To the west, 
near the edge of the pine timber, we discovered 
three real bears, very busy digging for roots and 
turning over rocks in search of mice and ants. My 
54 


Seizer of Eagles 

mother agreed with me that we were not out for 
bears. We saw a few deer; a band of antelope; sev- 
eral elk; and then, when well out from the river, 
discovered that we sought, a herd of buffalo. All 
of the animals were headed from us, feeding slowly 
up a ridge in the plain, and we remained right 
where we were until the last of them had disap- 
peared over the crest of the rise. We then went on, 
and when we were almost to the top of the ridge I 
let my horse go. He had seen the buffalo, was now 
scenting them, and was as eager to get in among 
them as I. Over the top we went, and down after 
the buffalo, not much more than a long bowshot 
away. We were almost upon them before they 
took alarm and started off in a wild rush down the 
hill, crowding in close together with a thunder 
of hooves, their short, tufted tails crooked stiffly 
above their rumps. 

I looked for one of them that was fat, chose a 
two-year bull, and guided my horse close up beside 
him, leaned out, poked my gun almost into his 
ribs, and fired. The ball pierced his lungs and a 
55 


Seizer of Eagles 

red stream of blood spurted from his nostrils; he 
was done for. I paid no more attention to him and 
began to reload my gun. A hundred times I had 
heard how the hunters did that in the chase. In 
my mouth I held three balls. Holding the gun in 
the crook of my left arm, I poured some powder 
from the horn into the palm of my hand, tried to 
pour it into the barrel of the gun, and spilled it all! 
In that way I lost two more charges. That would 
not do; powder was too valuable to be scattered 
over the plain. I checked up the horse, dropped the 
gun into a bunch of sagebrush, and then let him go 
as I got out my bow and several arrows and fitted 
one of them to the bow cord. The horse needed no 
urging; all that I had to do was to guide him toward 
the animal I wanted, and once he knew which one 
I selected, he did the rest. 

This time I chose a big cow, so round of body 
and fat that she was running well behind the leaner 
animals. She dodged just as I was about to slip an 
arrow into her, whirling sharply around upon the 
back trail, and even as she whirled, so did my horse, 
S6 


Seizer of Eagles 

his ears laid back, his teeth exposed ; mad he was 
and eager that the cow should not escape us. At 
his sudden turn I nearly went off him, only saving 
myself by a quick grasp of his mane. How he did 
run then, quickly carrying me close up behind the 
cow, then up along her right side until I at last 
got an arrow into her just back of the ribs, the 
shaft ranging forward into the heart. She made a 
high, sideways jump as it struck in, then several 
lesser leaps, and with the third leap thudded to 
the ground, dead as she struck it! The horse car- 
ried me well beyond her before he could slow up 
and turn back, and as I slid off him beside the car- 
cass, I said to myself : ‘‘Though I scattered powder 
over the grass, I surely can use bow and arrow 1’^ 
And took some comfort in that. I was very much 
ashamed at the way I had fumbled my handling of 
the gun. 

My mother had seen me drop the gun, and now, 
with my grandmother close behind, she came rid- 
ing up and handed it to me. “You should n’t 
have been so careless as to let it slip out of your 
57 


Seizer of Eagles 

hands, your great-uncle’s gun that he thinks so 
much of. What would we have done, how could 
we ever have repaid him if you had broken it!” she 
told me. 

It would serve Red Wings right if it were bro- 
ken; he was foolish to loan it to a careless boy!” 
my grandmother exclaimed. 

I made them no answer; rather than tell them 
that I had been so awkward with the gun, I pre- 
ferred that they think as they did. I helped them 
turn the big cow into position for skinning and 
butchering, and then, while they worked, I mounted 
my horse and rode up a near, bare butte, to keep 
a lookout for a chance war party of the enemy. 
In the very top of the butte I found an old pit of a 
seizer of eagles and got down from my horse and 
examined it, clearing out the slender willow sticks 
and rotted grass in the bottom, with which it had 
once been covered, and under the rubbish finding a 
human skull. When I saw that, I was up out of the 
pit with one quick spring. Skulls of men were 
things not to be touched ; the shadows of the dead 
S8 


Seizer of Eagles 

were known sometimes to hover around the re- 
mains in order to strike some kind of killing sick- 
ness into any one who desecrated them. 

I sat down near the edge of the pit and stared 
at the skull, tried to understand why it was there. 
It could n’t be the skull of the seizer of eagles who 
had dug the pit; if it were, then all his other bones 
should be there with it. But try as I would, I could 
find no explanation of this and fell to studying the 
pit itself. Longer than a man it was, quite narrow, 
and about shoulder-deep. Around it was no sign 
of the earth that had been taken from it ; all of that 
had been carried to a distance and scattered to the 
winds. I pictured the seizer of eagles, his pit com- 
pleted, carefully covering it with the light sticks, 
grass on top of them, and then upon the light roof 
laying his stuffed wolf skin, with fresh liver pro- 
truding from a slit in its side. That done, he had 
slid into the pit, covering over the place of his en- 
trance, and, lying down, awaited the coming of an 
eagle. But here all became dark to me. What 
sacred mysteries had the seizer performed, what 
59 


Seizer of Eagles 

prayers made, to bring the eagles to him and seize 
them without injury to himself? At thought of 
that my heart went dead; it did not seem possible 
for me to learn those mysteries; anyhow not for 
many, many winters to come. 

And then, after a time, I recalled kind old Red 
Wings’ encouraging words and began to feel better: 
“Yes! Young though I am, I shall soon be seizing 
the far-blue flyers!” I said. 

I looked down upon my women; they had fin- 
ished butchering the cow and were going to the 
carcass of the young bull. Then, from the direction 
of camp, I saw a large number of riders approach- 
ing, hunters in quest of meat and followed by their 
women. They passed on under the butte, a few 
pausing to speak with my mother, and from her 
one of them turned and rode up to me. Long Wolf 
he was, a youth of the Never Laugh clan, no more 
than one or two winters my elder. i 

“ Ha ! Little Otter, what do you here ? ” he asked. 
“Looking at this,” I answered, pointing to the 
pit. “The one thing that I want to do is to become 
6o 


Seizer of Eagles 

a seizer of eagles — not in far-off winters to come, 
but now, right now in this time of my youth,” I 
told him, as I had before told others. 

“Well, and why not do that?” 

“You speak as if seizing eagles were no more than 
killing buffalo,” I answered. 

“Nor is it! My brother-in-law says that all this 
fasting and praying and performing of mysteries 
is foolish craziness; that any one can go out and 
seize eagles.” 

“Who may he be — this wonderful brother-in- 
law?” 

“You need n’t speak that way! He is wonderful; 
more wise than all of our Sun priests! He is a white 
man ; one of those Long Knives traders over on Big 
River. Just to show you that his words are true, 
that I believe him, I shall repair this pit and right 
here seize eagles!” 

“Come closer; look down in it,” I told him, 
pointing to the skull. 

“Ha! And what of that?” he laughed, when he 
saw it. “My brother-in-law says that dead men’s 
6i 


Seizer of Eagles 

bones are no more than bones of buffalo and other 
animals. He says that men’s shadows do not re- 
main with their bones. I believe him. I am not 
afraid of that skull; when I repair this pit and lie 
down in it to await the coming of eagles, I shall use 
the skull for a pillow! But you were here first ; per- 
haps you want to use the pit.?’^ 

‘‘No, I do not want it,” I angrily answered. 
“I am not forsaking the teachings of our fathers! 
Use you this pit and learn that, while the white 
men are smart in some ways — able to make guns, 
powder, many things impossible for us to make — 
still, they have not the wisdom that our fathers 
have gathered since Old Man made the world and 
placed our people here, and have handed down to 
us. Follow you the white men’s trail, then; I shall 
keep to the trail 'marked out for me by our wise 
ones! Yes! Follow that trail of the white skins, 
and soon you will be crying out to Sun for help 1 ” 
“Who cares for the bird’s head!” he cried. “I 
shall be rich with eagle tails before this moon 
ends, and you — why, you will be working your 
62 


Seizer of Eagles 

way painfully to them for how long a time to 
come!” And away he rode to overtake the hunt- 
ers, now far out in the breaks of the foothills. 

Bravely though I had argued with this Long 
Wolf, now that he had left me I felt very low- 
hearted; as I rode down the butte to rejoin my 
women, I fought hard the thought that he might 
possibly be right; that his quick and easy trail, 
not my hard and long one, was the one I should 
follow. I had nothing to say to the women. I 
helped them load the horses with all the meat of 
the fat cow, and some of the young bull meat, and 
led the way back to camp. There, as soon as I had 
watered the animals, and driven them out to 
graze, I hurried into Red Wings’ lodge to return 
his gun, and tell him about my talk with the young 
unbeliever. 

“Yes, I know,” he said, when I had done. “All 
of last summer Long Wolf lived with his sister 
over there in the Long Knives’ fort on Big River, 
and ever since his return to us he has done noth- 
ing but praise the white men and their ways, and 

63 


Seizer of Eagles 

make jokes about our beliefs. Often and long have 
we tried to show him the truth, but he will not 
listen to our words. His time soon comes! Maybe 
he has put some doubts into your heart; if so, 
cast them out at once! Listen! See this yourself: 
True it is that white men are very cunning, able 
to make many things of great use to us. But there 
their smartness ends. When not trading for our 
robes and furs, what do they? — nothing but eat 
heavily; joke with one another; dance crazy dances 
with the girls of our tribe whom they marry. We 
learn from this Long Wolf’s sister that, long though 
she has been married to her white man, she has 
never known him nor any of his kind to pray, nor 
even talk about the gods, and that other life that 
sooner or later we must all enter. 

“In their ignorance they laugh at our way of 
life. They are to be pitied! They have never 
fasted, made sacrifices to the gods, prayed for re- 
vealing visions, so of course they have not knowl- 
edge. When they go out upon the plains, and 
into the great mountains, do they learn from the 
64 


Seizer of Eagles 

different animals, the birds of the air, the water 
creatures, the trees and plants, the hundreds of 
things that we learn from them? No! To all that 
they are deaf, and blind!” 

His talk ended, the old man seemed to forget 
me; with hands clasped and supporting his chin, 
he stared absently at the ground in front of him, 
muttering to himself. And presently I cried out: 
“That Long Wolf, he did me harm! He gave me 
doubting thoughts! 1 have cast them out, never 
again shall I entertain them!” 

“Ha! Spoken like the true Pikunikwan that 
you are. I was just praying for you to feel that 
way about it,” he said. “And now, listen; this 
day being well gone, to-morrow morning I shall 
unroll my Thunder Pipe for you, and when the 
ceremony is ended, you will take my gun, a robe, 
but no food, and go up on the side of the big, red 
mountain that slopes down into the upper lake, 
and there, finding a place of shelter from storm and 
wind, you are to fast, and pray for a vision, for 
some sacred one to become your lifelong guide and 
6S 


Seizer of Eagles 

shield from danger. Now you may return to your 
lodge. ’’ 

I went home happy, eager for the experience 
I was to have, all by myself upon that high, steep 
mountain. I talked with my mother about it, and, 
for once, my grandmother spoke kindly to me, 
gave me much encouragement in my undertaking. 

On the following day, when Sun was about half- 
way up to the middle, I was called to Red Wings’ 
lodge, and given a seat upon his couch, at his 
right. On his left, a little space between them, was 
his sits-beside-him wife, herself a sacred woman, 
bearer and keeper of his Thunder Pipe. Upon the 
couches between her and the doorway sat a num- 
ber of men who had come to assist in the pipe 
ceremony, several of them bringing drums with 
which to keep time to the songs that all were to 
sing. Upon my right, from me to the doorway, 
were Red Wings’ younger wives and a number of 
other women, who were also to join in the singing. 

In this one lodge of the great camp was now no 
talking, no smoking. All present were very solemn- 
66 


Seizer of Eagles 

faced ; they kept their eyes upon the little fire ; their 
thoughts were of the sacred pipe, favored of Sun, 
that was about to be unwrapped. Presently all 
eyes were turned upon Red Wings, with his red- 
painted willow tongs drawing several red coals 
from the fire and placing them in a little heap upon 
the ground between him and his head woman, 
and close in front of the couch upon which they 
sat. Then, from one of his sacred pouches, he took 
a small braid of sweetgrass and laid it upon the 
coals. Sweet-odored smoke arose from its burning, 
and he and his woman held their hands over it; 
grasped handfuls of it and rubbed their faces; 
smoothed it upon their hair and clothing, so puri- 
fying themselves before touching the powerful Sun 
pipe. That done, the woman arose, took down the 
roll of the pipe from its fastenings above the couch, 
and carefully laid it between her man and herself, 
and untied the four leather strings that bound it. 
Then again the man put sweetgrass upon the coals, 
and both he and the woman smoothed the roll with 
handfuls of the smoke, at the same time beginning 
67 


Seizer of Eagles 

the first one of the four unwrapping songs, the song 
of Ancient Buffalo, in which all the singers joined. 

My heart sinks ! Gone are those singers of that 
long ago morning; long since have their shadows 
departed to the Sand Hills, and with the remains 
of Painted Wings the sacred pipe itself lies buried! 
And those who have come after them, what are 
they? Pikuni only in name! Oh, well for those 
of that long ago time that they died when they did! 
They did not, like me, live to see the white men ex- 
terminate our game, fence up our great country, 
starve us, take our children from us and teach 
them their language, their ways of life, tell them 
that our beliefs are all lies, that Sun himself is 
nothing but a ball of fire, kept moving across the 
sky by one whom they call World-Maker! 

And what is the result of all this? It is that our 
children, forsaking our religion and laughing at 
that of their white teachers as even greater lies, 
believe nothing! And having not our ancient be- 
liefs, living not as, in the very beginning. Sun com- 
manded us to live, they have become cruel-hearted. 

68 


Seizer of Eagles 

Some of them tell lies; they steal; they cheat not 
only the white men, but one another as well! And, 
having not the strength nor the knowledge to fol- 
low the white men’s trail, they starve, they sicken 
and die! It is good that they die; there is not now 
any place on this earth for the Pikuni! Bad as 
they have become, it is my hope, my constant 
prayer that their shadows be permitted to join 
those of their fathers in the Sand Hills, and that 
we all soon thither go! Dreary that place is, that 
shadow land, but at that it is better than stagger- 
ing along the trail that the whites have here marked 
out for us! But, enough! Let me go back to those 
days of my youth! Let me for the time forget all 
this in telling you of the happy, rich, clean life of 
the long ago Pikuni! 

How low, sad, deep, and heart-stirring was that 
Ancient Buffalo song! It ended, and the woman 
laid open the outer one of the four wrappings of the 
pipe. Came next the Antelope Song, faster of time 
and in higher tone, and the second wrap was spread 
out. Followed the Wolf Song, and, last, the song of 
69 


Seizer of Eagles 

Thunder Bird, and as it ended and the last wrap- 
ping was opened, exposing the beautifully feathered 
and fur-tufted pipestem, we all — men and women 
— gave the loud, long, quavering shout of victory. 
How that stirred our hearts! How beautifully it 
sounded, that mingling of the high, clear voices of 
the women with the deep, full tones of the men! 

The Sun priest had already prepared a small dish 
of sacred paint; not the bright red paint of the 
white men, but the reddish brown powdery soft 
rock that Old Man, in making the world, had 
placed here and there in cutbanks for our use, and 
which Sun loved above all other colors. As he 
lifted the dish, I moved closer to him, and he 
painted my hair, my face, my hands with the 
sacred color, and then setting the dish aside and 
grasping his wrap with each hand to make it like 
the wings of a bird. Thunder Bird, he fanned me, 
at the same time praying Sun, all Above People, all 
creatures of the air, the earth, and the water, to 
pity me, protect me from all dangers, and partic- 
ularly to give me success in the lone, long fast 
70 



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HE PAINTED MY HAIR, MY FACE, MY HANDS WITH THE 


SACRED COLOR 





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Seizer of Eagles 

that I was about to endure. That done, he lifted 
the wonderful pipestem, the singers began the 
Thunder Bird dance song, and, holding the stem 
upraised, he danced before me, around the fire 
and before me again, and resumed his seat upon the 
couch: ‘‘There! I have done for you all that I can, 
you may go!” he told me. 

My eyes were so lull of tears that I could barely 
see the gun, powder-horn, and ball-pouch that one of 
his women held out to me. I took them and went 
out, passing several women and men that were wait- 
ing to enter and be prayed for. Passed also Long 
Wolf, who called out to me: “So, you go to fast! 
Me, I go to kill a wolf for bait for eagles!” 

I entered our poor little lodge and went to my 
couch. My mother placed food before me, sat 
down and hugged me to her and began to cry. 
“This may be the last meal that I shall ever give 
you! Oh, how I dread your going away up there 
by yourself to fast ! What terrible dangers you may 
have to face, dangers that you will not be able to 
survive!” she said. 


71 


Seizer of Eagles 

“Cease your whimpering!” my grandmother 
shouted to her. “On this day your son is no longer 
a boy to be petted and cried over. This day he be- 
comes a man, so encourage him to go forth and face 
all dangers, and bravely die if he fails to overcome 
them!” 

“Were he your son you would n’t be so hard- 
hearted!” said my mother. 

“I had a son! I never petted him, I made a 
brave man of him ! As you became his woman, you 
well know that!” the old woman cried. 

I could not bear her crossness, well meant though 
I knew it was. I had no desire to eat. I took up a 
large, well-furred robe, my gun, and said that I 
would go. My mother followed me out beyond the 
edge of camp, hugged and kissed me, sat down 
and covered her head with her wrap and cried. ^ I 
crossed the river and turned into the big game 
trail running up the valley. None of our hunters 
had followed it, this season, and, now that I was 
to fast upon the red mountain, until my time of 
trial ended, none would follow it beyond the foot 
72 


Seizer of Eagles 

of the upper lake. I found that the trail was hard- 
packed by the different kinds of hooved animals, 
and the bears, wolves, and other prowlers of the 
night that were constantly using it. I prayed that 
the bears would not attack me. 

I passed the lower lake, went on up the narrowed 
valley, and climbed the rock ledge frojn which 
leaps, from a dark cave in it, the falls of our virgin 
warrior woman. Running Eagle. But first I turned 
out of the trail to look at that dreadful river cave 
where, fearing not the terrible Under-Water Peo- 
ple, that young woman had endured her fast. 
And looking at it, with the roar of the falls in my 
ears, I said to myself: ‘‘She, just a girl, fasted, 
obtained her vision in the black night of that hole. 
Shall I, then, fear the nights that I must pass upon 
the open mountainside No! Take courage!’^ 
With quicker step and lighter heart I climbed 
to the top of the ledge and struck off through heavy 
timber to the east end of the red mountain. Deer, 
elk, several moose fled before me. Passing out 
from the timber, I went quartering westward up 
73 


Seizer of Eagles 

the open, grassy steeps and rock ledges, noting 
that numbers of bighorn and white goats were 
grazing and resting here and there, the nearer 
bands of bighorn making for the heights at sight 
of me, the white goats paying hardly any attention 
to my passing. When, at Sun’s going down, I was 
straight above the center of the upper lake, and 
about halfway to the top of the great mountain, I 
came upon the very place for my fast. Here a 
red rock ledge rose straight up to more than the 
height of a tall pine, and in it, its floor at about the 
height of my waist, was a small cave where I should 
be sheltered from wind and rain. Below the ledge 
at a distance of thirty or forty steps, a small spring 
of water ran from a crack in a bare rock slope. I 
went to the spring and drank, then climbed up to 
the cave, spread my robe in it, and lay down. It 
was but little more than the length of me, and, 
reaching in, I could touch its back wall; the out- 
thrust of its roof was my storm shield. 

I lay facing the valley. The tops of the moun- 
tains across were still Sun-painted, but the red was 
74 


Seizer of Eagles 

fast fading. Down under me the lake had turned 
black. I could see white, widening streaks in it 
made by ducks, or maybe beavers, but not the 
swimmers themselves. I dreaded the coming of 
the night; it came; I could see but dimly the white 
trickle of the spring, no farther. This was the first 
night in my life that I was to pass alone. Away off 
there in camp my mother, my cross old grand- 
mother, and Red Wings were praying for me, I 
knew. I began a prayer to Sun, to all the gods to 
preserve me from all dangers, and to give me a good 
vision. And then I stopped short; my skin turned 
rough; I shivered. Up through the black darkness 
there came to me so dreadful, so heart-sickening a 
cry that it did not seem possible any living crea- 
ture of this world, man, or animal of four feet, 
could have made it! 


CHAPTER IV 


H olding my breath and tightly gripping my 
gun, I sat up and listened, open-mouthed, for 
that awful cry to be repeated; dreaded hearing it 
again, yet felt that I must hear it, for I then might 
learn what it was that had come into my fasting- 
place to — doubtless — do me harm. But the cry 
did not come. Listen as I would, I could hear no 
footsteps. The spring lay in a narrow, grass-and- 
brush-grown shallow coulee running from my cliff 
down the mountain to the next cliff, more than a 
long bowshot from me, and each bank of the coulee 
was loose, coarse slide rock — droppings from the 
cliff — that would tinkle and crunch under the 
footsteps of any living thing except, perhaps, the 
fuzzy feet of a rabbit. Nothing had crossed the 
banks since I came to the cliff cave ; of that I was 
sure. That is, nothing of bone and flesh and beat- 
ing heart. Did the shadows of people have voices ? 
I questioned, and thought over all that I had heard 

76 


Seizer of Eagles 

about them. No, shadows were always silent, and 
invisible to the eyes of living people. Dogs alone 
had the power to see them; they often banded to- 
gether, their hair bristling forward, and rushed out 
from our lodges to drive a silent-moving, sneaking 
shadow away, shadow of some enemy that our war- 
riors had killed. ‘‘It is a living man, or prowling 
meat-eater that I have to watch for,’’ I said, and 
felt not quite so much afraid ; it were better to have 
an enemy that I could see, than one invisible. 

After a time the darkness lightened; Night Light 
was coming up. She rose above the sharp, black 
peaks of the mountains across the valley, showing 
almost the whole of herself, and making the steep 
slope below me plain to my eyes. I could see the 
water of the little spring glitter; every patch of 
brush in the shallow coulee stood out distinct in her 
light. For a long way east and west, outstanding 
cliffs and ridges of the mountain-side were in plain 
view; down in the bottom of the valley the lake was 
no longer black; its still surface had the shine of a 
white man’s looking-glass. Look where I would, I 
77 


Seizer of Eagles 

could see no living, moving thing, but that awful 
cry was ever in my ears. I was tired, sleepy, but 
dared not lie down or even close my eyes. I gath- 
ered my robe more closely about me and sat on 
watch all through the long night ; it passed quietly 
enough. 

When day came, at last, I went down to the 
spring and, though not thirsty, drank all the water 
I could hold ; men fasters, seekers of sacred visions, 
and women who for four days and nights fasted 
while they built a great lodge for Sun, were not 
permitted to drink during the time he was following 
his trail across the blue. I drank that I might not 
become painfully thirsty during the day, and hur- 
ried back into my cave. I was now very hungry, 
but put the thought of food from me, and prayed 
Sun to keep me safe from all danger, and give me 
soon a good vision. 

Just before Sun came up, some white grouse flew 
down to the spring and drank, and before they 
scattered out to feed, I prayed them to help me, to 
give me a good dream. They were losing their 

78 


Seizer of Eagles 

winter whiteness; already some of their yellow 
feathers of summer had grown out. A lone old wolf, 
his winter coat all faded and ragged, frightened 
them away as he came to the spring and drank. I 
was lying upon my robe, and the little wind there 
was blew up the mountain ; he did not notice me, or, 
seeing, thought that I was a part of the cliff rock. 
Silently I prayed him for help. After he had gone, 
band after band of bighorns and white goats came 
to drink, the males always separate from the fe- 
males and their young. I prayed to them all, often 
biting my lips to keep from laughing at the young 
as they chased one another, leaped over the backs 
of their mothers, and head against head playfully 
fought. They were all very small, some of them no 
doubt but a few days old, but they were just as 
sure-footed as their elders, and much more active. 

Seven of the early morning drinkers, seven big- 
horn mothers and their young, were last to straggle 
away from the spring, and of these, one mother 
with twins left the coulee well behind her sisters. 
At a little distance out to the west of me, she came 
79 


Seizer of Eagles 

to a stand on a slope of rough slide rocks of all 
shapes, none of them as large as my head, and then 
turned around and looked at her young, several 
times stamping one and the other of her forefeet. 
I wondered why she did that. I looked quickly all 
around, thinking that she had discovered an ap- 
proaching enemy. Not a prowler was in sight, and I 
turned to her again just in time to see the twins, 
some little distance apart, drop to their knees and 
then lie down among the rocks, lower their heads, 
and then I could see them no more than if they had 
sunk right into the mountain-side. I understood; 
she had ordered them to lie down and sleep. They 
were of the color of the rocks ; without doubt they 
gave off no odor of their kind; a wolf or other 
enemy, even I might go close by their resting-place, 
and never know that they were there. The mother 
looked at one and the other of them several times, 
and turned, crossed the slide, and slowly grazed 
down the grass and short-brush slope to the other 
old ones. I saw that their young had also disap- 
peared. Sun climbed up and up in the blue, the 
8o 


Seizer of Eagles 

day became warm. Six of the mothers lay down, 
rechewing what they had grazed of grass and ten- 
der growth of brush* and some soon fell asleep. 
The seventh one stood on watch. 

I was now becoming very sleepy, and knew 
that I should sleep; that was why I was there; in 
sleep, the gods helping me, my shadow would go 
out from my body on far wanderings, and meet 
some creature who perhaps would become my life- 
long, powerful helper. But still that awful cry of 
the night was in my ears. I could not forget it, I 
kept watch for the crier, dared not close my eyes. 
Was I a coward? How many youths of my num- 
ber of winters, there in my place, alone, as I was, 
would have had more courage ? 

Now that Sun had climbed high up in the blue, 
the outhanging roof of my cave prevented my see- 
ing him. While I now and then looked at every 
part of the mountain-side that was in view from 
where I lay, I kept close watch on the bighorn 
mothers. The one of them that remained stand- 
ing, turning frequently to stare at all parts of the 
8i 


Seizer of Eagles 

big slope, was also standing watch for me; so long 
as she remained quiet, I could be sure that there 
was no enemy sneaking upon me. It must have 
been about the middle of the day when, from her 
position above the others, she slowly walked to 
them and lay down, and at that, the one nearest 
her got up, humped her back, stretched herself, 
yawned, and started slowly up the slope to take 
her turn on guard. She suddenly stopped and 
jerked her head in my direction, and I saw that one 
of her young had left its resting-place and was 
running swiftly toward her. With a quick, long 
leap she started to meet it and all the other old 
ones sprang from their beds. 

Then I heard a loud, ripping noise that seemed 
to come from above, and no sooner had it come to 
my ears, than with stiff set wings, down came a 
great eagle from the blue and seized the running 
young one! Deep into its back it set its sharp 
claws, and with quick flappings of wings started 
to rise with it. The mother had come close ; with a 
last, high spring she tried to strike the seizer with 
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her forefeet — and just missed the bird! Faster 
and faster it rose, flying outward from the slope. 
All the other mothers were coming running toward 
the hiding-places of their young. I heard the little 
one in the eagle’s claws pitifully, faintly bleat, saw 
it wildly jerking its head, beating the air with its 
slender, useless legs. The eagle was now flying 
straight away from the mountain, and when well 
out beyond the cliff below me, it suddenly let the 
little one drop, hovered on back-beating wings, 
and then dived down after it. Listening intently, 
I heard the faint, far-down crash of the little body 
upon the rocks; it came to me that the eagle had 
purposely dropped it, not only to kill it, but to 
make its torn and bleeding body easy picking for 
its young ones, hungrily waiting for food in their 
nest in some near cliff. As soon as the eagle dived 
from my sight, I turned to look at the bighorns; 
with their young close to their sides they were 
running west; they disappeared over the top of a 
rocky point, heading up the mountain, and I saw 
them no more. 


83 


Seizer of Eagles 

I had been very angry at the eagle when it 
seized the young bighorn, but now, thinking it 
over, I knew that I was very wrong to feel so. 
Were I to blame the eagle for what he did, I must 
take blame for what I was trying to do! We both 
were doing only what Old Man had made us to do ; 
eagles to kill young bighorns, goats, rabbits, birds, 
and men to kill all animals for food, clothing, and 
adornments ! And so thinking, I fell asleep. 

Sun had set when I awoke. I came to myself 
with a sudden start and sat up and stared down 
the slope. Not an animal was anywhere in sight. 
I had slept heavily; no vision had been mine. I was 
terribly disappointed; wondered how long I must 
remain there in the cave in order that my shadow 
go out upon discovery and find the help I sought. 
I rubbed my eyes, looked all along the slope again, 
and in the dusk hurried down to the spring and 
drank, and ran as fast as I could go back to the 
cave ; that was not very fast ; I was becoming weak- 
legged from need of food. 

There had been a light west wind all day. It 
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Seizer of Eagles 

now died out. The night became very dark. From 
far up the valley, and across it, came the voices of 
the waterfalls upon the steep mountain-sides. I 
thought of what I had heard my father say about 
them, and felt very sad. His words were : “They 
talk to one another, those falling streams, but we 
cannot know what they say; only the gods know 
their language. They have been talking ever since 
Old Man made the world, and will go on talking 
forever. We men are born, our voices are heard for 
a little time, and then — no more of them!” 

Never once had I heard his voice in anger, not 
even when he was handling a mean horse. His 
name had been Morning Eagle, but people seldom 
called him that; they called him Gentle. That was 
their name for him; men, women, children, to all 
he was the Gentle One. The Generous One! Gentle 
though he was at home, our warriors said that he 
had been fierce enough, bravest of the brave in 
battle with our enemies. Thinking now of him, 
there in the darkness and loneliness of that moun- 
tain-side, I for the first time questioned my inten- v 

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tions. I had thought, I had said that I wanted to 
be simply a seizer of eagles; but was that enough 
— should I not also become, following my father’s 
trail, a terror to our enemies ? 

A loud splashing in the spring startled me. I was 
lying down, my robe folded over me, and came 
very near throwing it off and sitting up; instead, I 
said to myself: “Take courage! Lie still! You 
must lie still!” Ha! But it was hard to do that; I 
was just aching to be up and going from that place 
and going fast! 

With the noise of the splashing in the spring, I 
now heard loud snuffling and snorting, and at the 
same time a little upward puff of wind brought to 
me the bad odor of bear. With the very first splash 
of water I had thought it likely a bear was taking a 
bath, and now I knew it. Were it a black bear, all 
was well with me ; but if the bather chanced to be 
a real bear, then was I in great danger. Silently 
I called upon Sun to help me, and prayed, too, to 
Ancient Bear to turn this, one of his children, from 
my resting-place. I had never had anything to do 
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Seizer of Eagles 

with real bears, but knew all about them. Never a 
summer passed but several of our people were 
killed or crippled by them. They were the most 
uncertain of animals; at sight of man some would 
run away; others just go on with whatever they 
were doing; and still others, the few, would come 
straight at the person and kill, or so terribly bite 
and claw him that he might as well be dead. 

By the noise he made, I knew that the bear was 
rolling over and over in the spring. The splashings 
ceased, and water dripped from him in many little 
streams. There was the sound like that of far-off, 
faint thunder; he was shaking himself, and such a 
rumbling as there was could come only from a 
furry hide as big as that of a buffalo cow; the bather 
was a real bear! Again I prayed for help. Soon I 
heard the faint swish, swish of brush as he passed 
through it, and then the crunch and tinkle of slide 
rock under his heavy weight. I could even heal 
the rattle of the long claws of his forefeet! He was 
coming up the slope, straight up toward me! Ha! 
Was n’t fear then in me and breaking out in sweat 

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Seizer of Eagles 

all over my body! I knew that it was useless to get 
up and run; in two jumps he would have me! 
There was just one thing for me to do: shoot at him 
when he began to raise himself to enter my cave ; 
thrust the muzzle of my gun right against him and 
pull trigger! If the ball failed to strike him dead, 
and probably it would fail to do that, there was 
the chance that the flash of fire and the loud boom! 
of the gun would frighten him away, wounded 
though he was. But how small was that chance! 

It may be that, had I lain perfectly still, he 
would have turned and gone east or west along 
the slide rock at the foot of the cliff; but as he came 
on and I felt that he was heading straight for the 
cave, I had to change my position in order quickly 
to face him. I was lying right at the edge of the 
cave floor, and slowly as possible rolled away from 
it with the intention to sit up and hold my gun 
ready to fire. He gave a loud snort and came on 
faster when I moved, and I knew that he had seen 
me. He made three crashing jumps up the slide to 
the foot of the cliff, and then, dark as it was, I 
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Seizer of Eagles 

could see the still more black outline of him rising 
above the cave floor. I bent forward, poked the 
muzzle of my gun into soft, giving furry hide and 
flesh and fired, and by the blinding flash of the 
powder I saw that he was a bear of huge body! 
As the ball struck into him he let out a snorting 
roar that struck me right in the face, hot bad 
breath and wetness that was sickening, and with 
his roar he lunged farther into the cave, his nose 
striking my breast. I flinched back against the 
cave wall, crying to Sun to protect me from him, 
and as I did so he roared again, lost his foothold 
on the cliff wall and the great forepart of him be- 
gan slipping backward. He clawed and clawed at 
the cave floor, and at the wall below with his hind 
feet, trying to recover his hold and come back at 
me, but his strength was going. Again and again 
he roared, and panted, and champed his jaws, 
and suddenly with a last scraping of claws was 
gone! I heard him thud upon the slide rock; heard 
the grind and rattle of it as he rolled down the 
steep slope, and then all was still. 

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Seizer of Eagles 

I had killed him! With one shot from my gun I 
had killed the largest bear that I had ever seen! 
I could count a coup upon him. Not so great a 
coup as though I had killed a Sioux or Crow or 
other of our enemies, but still a coup, I saw myself 
standing in front of the great Sun lodge that our 
women would build, there facing the people and 
crying out: “In the New Grass moon of this sum- 
mer, I sought a vision in a little cave in the red 
rock mountain on the west side of upper Two 
Medicine Lodges Lake. There, in the darkness of 
night, a huge real bear tried to enter and seize me. 
I poked my gun against his breast, fired, and killed 
him. Proof of this is the claw necklace that you 
see I am wearing!” And then, when I finished, 
how the people would shout my name in praise! 
How pleasant it would be in my ears. And then, 
I thought, I would look straight into the eyes of 
Long Wolf, unbeliever, and say to him: “The 
gods are good to those who fast and pray!” 

So thinking, I poured some powder into the palm 
of my hand, felt it, knew that it was not too much 
90 


Seizer of Eagles 

nor too little, and let it run down my gun barrel. 
After it I rammed a patched ball down, primed the 
firing-pan, and so felt strong to meet whatever 
would next try to do me harm. 

I gave up hope of having a vision that night. I 
lay down again at the outer edge of the cave, 
stared out into the darkness, looked up at the 
Seven Persons, slowly turning in the north, and 
prayed them to pity me. After long waiting for her, 
Night Light came up her trail across the sky. 
Even before she appeared above the mountain- 
tops across the valley, the light that she gave 
enabled me to see, though dimly, the body of the 
bear. It lay at the foot of the slide rock, about 
halfway from me to the spring. I waited until 
Night Light cleared the mountains, and then went 
down to the bear, lying sprawled out in the upper 
edge of the brushy coulee. He was larger than I 
had thought him to be; fully as large-bodied as an 
old cow buffalo, though shorter of leg. His mouth 
was open, exposing his terrible teeth, the four 
yellow-white tushes as long as my thumbs. Be- 

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cause he had lain in a den all winter, his fur was 
not yet faded and slipping; it was very long and 
thick, and in color dark gray. Many times I 
walked around him, and the longer I looked at his 
great size the more happy I was in having put an 
end to his trail. I was so happy over it, so proud, 
that it was all I could do to keep from shouting 
the victory song right there by his side. I did jump 
up onto his side and hum it, and dance; and then, 
laying aside my gun, I got out my knife and one by 
one unjointed his foreclaws, all of them longer than 
the width of my hand. 

In these days of change, of the craziness of the 
Pikuni for the fine blankets, cloths, beads and 
paints and sweets of the white men, some of our 
hunters skin the bears that they kill, and trade 
the hides for these things. It was different in the 
time of my youth. As bears are half-human — one 
has only to look at one’s body to know that — 
they should be, and were then, when slain, treated 
as any other enemy. Their foreclaws were taken, 
just as one took the scalp of Crow, Cree, or other 
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enemy that he killed, but the body, hide and all, 
was given to Sun. So, now, having severed the 
claws of this, my great kill, I put them in my ball- 
pouch, and rising, prayed: “O Sun! Here, now, I 
give to you the body of this my enemy. I am weak, 
be you my strength! I am blind, do you make trail 
for me and keep me on it! Pity my mother, grand- 
mother; all my relations; all men, women, chil- 
dren of our tribes, pity them. Allow us to survive all 
dangers, give us long and happy lives, I pray you ! 
And to me, O Sun! give that which I here fast and 
pray for! Give me, and soon, the vision that I 
need!’’ 

So having prayed, I went down to the spring 
and drank, washed my hands and knife, and 
started to return to the cave. I paused beside the 
body of the bear, again to admire its great size, 
and began climbing the steep slide rock down which 
he had rolled, leaving behind dark splashings of his 
blood. I had taken no more than three steps 
when, with a harsh rushing of air, a large rock 
crashed down upon the slide close on my left, and 
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Seizer of Eagles 

went rolling on down into the head of the spring 
coulee. I ran for the shelter of the cave, another 
rock thudding down just behind me, and climbed 
into it all out of breath and trembling. I had nar- 
rowly escaped death. 

It suddenly came to me that the two rocks that 
had crashed down so near me had not just loosened 
from the cliff and dropped, else they would have 
struck the upper end of the steep slide and rolled 
down it. I had not heard the two break off; they 
had struck far out from the foot of the cliff ; some 
one on top of it had hurled them at me ! I had been 
weak, just sick from want of food, but the excite- 
ment of shooting the big bear had given me new 
strength. That was now gone; I was more weak 
and sick than before his coming. And now there 
came to me, as on my first night in the cave, that 
awful cry! Not a lone cry, but three times re- 
peated; hoarse, long-drawn-out, as of one in ter- 
rible pain. It came from above, from the top of 
the cliff, and my last, small doubt vanished; the 
two rocks had been hurled at me! Here, on this 
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Seizer of Eagles 

high mountain-side, was an enemy who sought my 
life! 

Red Wings, great Sun priest though he was, had 
been mistaken, I thought, in sending me to this 
red mountain. Instead of Sun protection here, I 
had found only trouble. The great bear had at- 
tacked me, and no sooner had I killed him than 
another and still worse enemy appeared. A man, 
probably, of a West-Side tribe, all of them our 
enemies. In order to obtain a vision, one must 
have peaceful surroundings; a feeling of safety 
where he lay. That would be impossible here. I 
decided to abandon the place, when day came, and 
do my best to avoid this enemy and return home. 
Without doubt he knew the way that I had come, 
and would lie in wait somewhere along the trail to 
ambush me. I had to decide upon some other way 
to camp. And if I did get there, what shame would 
then be mine in admitting that I had not obtained 
my vision — that I had been driven from my 
fasting-place! For once, how that Long Wolf 
would laugh at me! 


CHAPTER V 


D uring the rest of that night I sat with my 
back to the wall of the little cave, watching, 
listening for my enemy. He did not appear, nor 
did I hear further outcry from him. Daylight came 
at last, and how peaceful seemed that mountain 
slope; even the big, dead bear down at the foot of 
the slide rock had a restful appearance. Little 
birds were everywhere singing. Some white grouse 
came to the spring, drank, and strutted about. I 
hated to leave the place; decided to remain until 
Sun had climbed halfway up to the middle; by 
that time my enemy, tired from his all-night 
watch, and thinking that I would not leave my 
resting-place, himself would fall asleep, and I 
could make my escape. I, myself, could hardly 
keep my eyes open; never in all my life had I felt so 
tired, hungry, weak, and sleepy. I vowed that I 
would keep awake; upon that my life depended! 
Sun soon rose above the mountain-tops and 
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Seizer of Eagles 

warmed the cave. As he climbed up into the blue, 
I noticed that no bands of bighorns and white 
goats came from above to drink; sure sign that my 
enemy was somewhere close up there. After a time 
a band of bighorns did come from the east to drink, 
but upon nearing the spring they smelled or saw 
the dead bear, and turned back upon their trail 
as fast as they could go. Came next a lone wolf, 
also from the east, trotting, and with head held 
high, and ears set forward, sniffing the air. Upon 
sighting the bear, he stopped short, stared at it, 
uneasily treading the ground with his forefeet, 
uncertain what to do. He finally turned down to 
the spring, watching the bear as he went, hastily 
lapped some water, and then went running on to 
the west. Both he and the bighorns had come from 
the east, and right upon the big game trail leading 
to Running Eagle’s falls, and thence down the 
valley to the plains. They were an almost sure 
sign that my enemy was not hiding along it. I 
thought that I had better go, straight down to the 
trail and run along it as fast as I could in my great 
97 


Seizer of Eagles 

weakness, but still I lingered. Something, some- 
thing that I could not sense, a feeling that I could 
not describe, held me there in the cave. 

From somewhere above there now came to me 
the croaking of a raven; not the slow, occasional 
croak of one traveling, but quick, loud croaking as 
though the bird was excited about something. I 
leaned forward, looked up and saw, high above the 
top of the cliff, a large eagle circling around and 
around and the raven following as best it could, 
now and then flying close enough almost to strike 
its big enemy. But the eagle paid no attention to 
it; just kept on sailing around and around, and 
going higher, and with a few last croaks the raven 
left it and flew in to the mountain. I lost sight of it 
for a short time, and then, with set wings and two 
or three low croaks, it came down past me and 
dropped right upon the head of the bear and 
plucked out its exposed eye. That done, the bird 
walked back along the side of the body, and just 
behind the ribs began, cutting into the hide with 
its sharp bill; but a few stabs and it ripped a slit 


Seizer of Eagles 

through which it could get at the liver, and began 
eating of that greedily. I had slowly, cautiously 
lain down to rest my aching back while watching, 
and praying to this, the wisest, the best hunter of 
all the flyers, and the one most loved by Sun. Once, 
twice I caught myself closing my eyes, nodding my 
head, did my best to resist the sleepiness that was 
overpowering me — and slept ! 

I awoke and sat up, gun in hand, stared out 
upon the slope, saw nothing to alarm me. Sun was 
not halfway up to the middle; I had slept but a 
short time. In my heart was great happiness! In 
my body new strength! There in the light of day, 
and no doubt right under my enemy’s watching- 
place, I had obtained my vision! I slept and my 
shadow — my other me — had gone forth seeking 
help and soon obtained it. All was very plain to 
me: Traveling through rough, foothills country, I 
had met a badger and asked him to be my helper, 
and he had dived down into his hole under a dead 
buffalo, giving me no answer. Then, farther on, I 
had one after another prayed an antelope, a wolf, 
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Seizer of Eagles 

a coyote, a lone old buffalo bull, and a fox to take 
pity upon me, to be my lifelong helper. The fox 
alone gave me answer, and he said: “I know one 
who has more favor with the gods than I ; he lives 
just behind that hill; go ask him for help.’^ 

I went over the hill and down into a grove of 
cottonwoods beside a little stream, crying over and 
over: “Oh, you creatures of the air; you of the 
plains and forests; you of the waters! Take pity 
upon me, some one of you, and become my life- 
long, secret helper, shield me from the dangers that 
I must meet upon my trail! 

Here in the trees and upon the ground were 
many kinds of little birds, flying and hopping about, 
seeking food, singing happily. Two minks were 
playing in the little stream; across from them a 
beaver sat on the bank, eating the bark from a 
willow cutting; a big-feet rabbit sat under a rose- 
bush ; beyond him two whitetail deer were resting. 
Birds and animals, all seemed to pause and listen 
to my prayer and then look to the west; none of 
them gave me answer. I was so tired, so weak that 


100 


Seizer of Eagles 

I could go no farther. I sank to the ground, saying 
to myself as I closed my eyes: “None will help me; 
here I die!” 

And now, though my eyes were closed, I could 
see, far off, the Sand Hills, and at the foot of them 
a great camp of shadow lodges. Shadow people, 
horses, dogs; all of them mimicking the lives they 
had led in the flesh. Among those silent, moving, 
shadow people I thought that I recognized my 
father, a brother, and several young friends, and 
how unhappy were their faces! How' very dreadful 
it all was! I did not want to join those shadows! 
I did not want to live with them the never ending 
shadow life! 

Then it was that I heard a loud fluttering of 
wings; it ceased and in a loud, deep voice I heard 
some one say: “You called for help, so I am come!” 

I opened my eyes and sat up, and saw there, right 
in front of me upon the ground, a large raven. I 
cried out to him: “You, Raven, you will be my 
helper, my shield from danger along my life-trail?” 

“Know this,” he answered: “I am not one of 


lOI 


Seizer of Eagles 

my tribe that you see every day; I am their ances- 
tor, first one of my kind, Ancient Raven. Long 
have I watched you and seen that you are of good 
heart. Yes, I will be your helper. I am close to 
Sun himself. When in need, when in doubt, when 
in trouble of any kind, call upon me and I shall give 
you help!” 

“O generous one! How you put strength into 
me!” I cried, and would have said more had not 
what my astonished eyes now witnessed stopped 
my mouth. Right there before me that bird 
changed into a man, a man beautiful of face and 
body, and clothed in a war costume that shone like 
the light of Sun. Wonderful, beautiful beyond 
words to describe was he as he stood there close 
before me, and then, as quick as a flash of light- 
ning, vanished; and in place of him, I saw the 
bird spring into the air and croaking loudly fly 
off to the west, whence he had come. And then I, 
my shadow, returned into my body, I awoke, and 
there I was, sitting upon my cave floor and staring 
down at the mountain slope! 


102 



RIGHT THERE BEFORE ME THAT BIRD CHANGED 
INTO A MAN 




Seizer of Eagles 

It was some time before I could fully realize that 
I had actually been given the vision, the helper 
that I sought. And what a helper; wisest of all the 
flyers, and of them all, most loved by Sun! Right 
then I prayed to him and to Sun himself to save me 
from my enemy, waiting somewhere near to take 
my life, and then, casting aside my robe, I slid 
from the cave, ran down the slide rock to the game 
trail, and turned upon it for home. My short vision- 
sleep had given me back a little of my strength; I 
ran quite fast; and as I ran, with gun cocked and 
ready to fire, I kept looking ahead and on both sides 
of the trail for the rock-thrower, and often looked 
back to see if he was following me. I soon made 
sure that he was not upon my trail, and bands of 
bighorn and goats scattered here and there ahead 
were proof enough that he had not gone that way. 

These bands of game fled from my approach, 
hurrying all of them to the high cliffs of the moun- 
tain and there pausing to stare down at me. I was 
too weak to pursue and try to kill any of the ani- 
mals, and oh, how badly I needed food. As I 
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Seizer of Eagles 

passed the end of the mountain and approached 
the falls of Running Eagle, my steps became 
wabbly; I stumbled down the ledge from which the 
river pours, and halfway across an open park below 
the falls, dropped into the grass, praying Ancient 
Raven to protect me. 

I had lain in the park but a short time when I 
heard voices, and the thud of horses’ feet in the 
trail below. A little later the riders — they were 
three — came into the open and proved to be, as I 
had been sure they were, hunters from our camp. 
I staggered to my feet, waved to them to come on, 
and dropped back into the grass. They had recog- 
nized me and hurried to my side. 

“Ha! It is you!” cried one of them, a great 
hunter named Fox Eyes. “You went away to 
seek your vision. Mornings, and again at evening. 
Red Wings has been going the round of camp, call- 
ing upon us all to pray for your safety and success. 
How is it with you?” 

“Good! All good! I have had my fast, a most 
powerful one has promised to be my helper — ” 
104 


Seizer of Eagles 

‘‘Who may he be?” another of the hunters in- 
terrupted, with a teasing smile upon his lips. 

“That is for Red Wings alone to know,” I 
shortly told him; and then they all laughed. They 
had no thought that I would tell them my vision. 
Only to his Sun priest did one make that known. 
I have told you all about it, for you are white, and 
different, and will take no advantage of me. 

“This you all shall know,” I went on. “I have 
had a dangerous time, fasting back there upon that 
red rock mountain. A big real bear attacked me, 
and I killed him; here in my ball-pouch I have his 
claws. Then an enemy tried to kill me; in the 
night, last night, he threw two large rocks down at 
me. I think that he was sleeping when I made my 
escape from the little cave in the cliff where I 
fasted. Do not, oh, do not blame me for sneaking 
from there. I was too weak, too sick to remain and 
fight him. This far I came toward home, and could 
go no farther!” 

“Blame you! Of course not! You did right!” 
Fox Eyes told me, and the others said so too. The 
105 


Seizer of Eagles 

tliree of them quickly asked me just where I had 
fasted, where I thought the rock-thrower might be 
found. And then Fox Eyes said: ‘‘We were about 
to cross the river and go into that heavy timber 
to hunt moose. But here is game worth while, 
your enemy. We go for him! Take you my horse 
and ride home.’’ 

They helped me get up into the saddle, asked if 
I was sure that I could ride to camp. They then 
picketed the other two animals there to await their 
return, and we parted. The one I rode was eager 
to return to his band ; where the trail was smooth he 
trotted. It was but little past midday when I 
brought him to a stand before my lodge. Mother 
and grandmother helped me into the lodge to my 
couch, and old Red Wings came in close after us. 
All talking at once, they wanted to know how I had 
fared in my lone fast ; if I had been given a vision. 
I answered that all was well; called for food. My 
mother gave me a bowl of soup, and no sooner had 
I drunk it than I fell asleep. 

It was past midnight when I awoke from that 
io6 


Seizer of Eagles 

needed sleep, but late though it was, my mother 
was still sitting up watching me, and before the 
little fire was a pot of boiled meat and soup. She 
gave me some of it. My grandmother awoke and 
looked out at me from under her coverings. As I 
ate and drank I told them all about my experiences 
in my fast, all excepting the name of the sacred 
bird that had become my helper. I showed them 
the claws of the big real bear, and how they ad- 
mired them! Then, when I had finished, they gave 
me some very good, and some very bad news; 
At sundown. Fox Eyes and the other two hunters 
had come home with the scalp of my rock-throwing 
enemy. He had proved to be a member of the 
Snake tribe; that they knew by the peculiar fur- 
and-feather collar that he wore. When they 
sneaked upon him, he was skinning my bear, and 
now and then eating a mouthful of the raw meat 
and fat. Without doubt he had seen me making 
for home, and with my going had taken possession 
of my leavings, including the robe that I had cast 
aside in the cave. That was the good news, and 
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now for the bad : near sunset, Long Wolf had come 
strutting into camp and he carried a large eagle 
upon his back! 

Now, when I heard of Long Wolfs success my 
heart went almost dead! 

I dropped back upon my couch, telling my 
mother that she should take to her couch, as I 
would need nothing more and wished to sleep. But 
I did not sleep! I kept asking myself if the suf- 
fering that I had endured, the dangers that I had 
narrowly escaped during my fast, had been all for 
nothing. Without fasting, without prayer even, 
Long Wolf had taken possession of an abandoned 
pit, and it containing a human skull, and there had 
seized an eagle! Were they right, then, his white 
brother-in-law and he, and we all wrong.? Was 
the seizing of eagles just common work like trap- 
ping foxes and wolves.? Was it true, as the white 
man claimed, that our belief in Sun was all foolish- 
ness — and our prayers just so much wasted 
breath.? How I suffered from those dark thoughts! 
Over and over I said that there could be no ques- 


Seizer of Eagles 

tion of the truth of our beliefs. Sun was! We could 
daily see him. Scar Face, our far-back ancestor, 
had visited him in his far-off island home, visited 
him. Night Light, his wife, Morning Star, their 
son, and great had been their kindness to him. I, 
myself, had I not proof that all that I had been 
taught was truth ? With my own shadow eyes I had 
seen Ancient Raven, and heard him promise to be 
my lifelong sacred helper! Still — Long Wolf, un- 
believer, had seized an eagle! 

“Oh, what is true and what is false?” I kept 
asking myself, and could get no answer. I sweat 
over that; rolled and tossed about upon my couch. 
At last Sinuski and Nipoka came sneaking in to 
me. She lay down at my feet, but the wolf pup 
crept up and licked my face, and burrowed into 
my coverings. His warm little body against mine 
was a comfort. I fell asleep. 

Sun was well upon his trail when I awoke. 
Carrying my clothes and with only my robe about 
me, I went to the river to bathe. Several youths of 
my age were on the shore, dressing after their 
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Seizer of Eagles 

swim. But a few days back they had played and 
joked with me; they now gave me shy greeting; 
watched me as though I were a stranger to them. 
I knew how it was: word had gone the round of 
camp that I had fasted, and had a vision; killed a 
real bear. To these youths I was no longer one of 

them. The respect that they now gave me was 
somewhat pleasing; still, I felt quite low-hearted 
because my days of play were forever ended. And 

then, from the time I awoke, all the doubts and 
questionings of the night had come back upon me ! 

Sinuski and Nipoka splashed into the water with 
me, swam about and followed me to the shore. 
The pup would have nothing to do with any one 
but me, shrinking even from my mother when she 
offered him food, and growling at my grandmother, 
whom he widely avoided. Me he loved, and that 
was some comfort in all the trouble of my mind. 

My one-time playmates were gone when I came 
ashore. I hurriedly dressed and left the river. As I 
crossed the great camp circle I heard, away off to 
my left, a doctor singing and drumming in a lodge 
no 


Seizer of Eagles 

of the Never Laugh clan, but paid no attention to 
it, not even wondering who of the clan might be 
sick. Upon entering our lodge, my mother said 
that Red Wings had sent word for me to have the 
morning meal with him. I hurried across to his 
lodge ; it had been my intention to go to him with 
my doubts and troubles as soon as he would re- 
ceive me. He motioned me to a seat upon his left, 
and told his sits-beside-him woman to give us food. 
Just to look at him as he sat there under his sacred 
pipe roll, so calm, so wise, so sure of himself, was 
helpful. While we ate, he had me tell him about 
my killing of the real bear, and all that I knew of 
my rock-throwing enemy. And then, when the 
meal was over and the women had taken our 
empty bowls, he told them all to busy themselves 
with what outside work they had to do. They 
went, and as the door curtain dropped behind them, 
he turned to me and said: “Now we are alone; tell 
me, what was your vision?’’ 

I described Ancient Raven, just as he had ap- 
peared to me as a bird, as he had all but blinded 

III 


Seizer of Eagles. 

me with his Sun-beauty when he changed into 
man-form, and related all that he had said to me 
and I to him. I finished and, clapping his hands 
together, the old man cried out: “Truly, this is 
even better than my strongest hopes for you! 
Often and earnestly I prayed the gods to give you 
a good vision ; well I knew that that red mountain 
was Sun-favored; but little did I think that so 
great, so powerful a bird-person as Ancient Raven 
would appear to you and offer to be your sacred 
helper! With him for your shield, my son, and you 
pray to him as you should pray, I foresee great 
success for you upon your life-trail ! ’’ 

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, but still, how I have suf- 
fered this night past! What terrible doubts are in 
me! Fasting, praying, sick, risking my life, I 
sought sacred help for that I so much want to do. 
And while I was doing that. Long Wolf, laughing 
at our gods, saying that our beliefs are all foolish- 
ness, went into an old pit and seized an eagle! 
Now, what am I to think of that 
The old man had raised his hand to stop my 


II2 


Seizer of Eagles 

talk, but I would not heed the sign. I finished; he 
straightened up, glared at me, and was opening his 
mouth to say to me I know not what hard things, 
when the door curtain was thrust aside and an old 
woman entered, knelt and whined: “Hai-yu! 
Red Wings! O powerful one! Loved by Sun! 
Take pity upon my grandson. Long Wolf. Pity 
me, his grandmother! He is sick! He suffers ter- 
ribly! We ask you to come with your Thunder 
Pipe and pray for him!” 

“Woman, what sickness has Long Wolf?” Red 
Wings asked. 

“The black sickness!” she moaned. “Yesterday 
he seized an eagle; the mean bird stuck its claws 
into his right hand and it has turned black; it 
swells and the arm too! Since sunrise Red Robe 
has been doctoring him, and does no good; arm 
and hand turn blacker and more black, swell 
larger and larger! Come you, O powerful one, and 
help him!” 

“Woman!” the old man sternly exclaimed, “your 
grandson scoffed at our gods; said that they were 

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Seizer of Eagles 

nothing; that our belief in them was foolishness! 
And now they punish him! It is not for me with 
my sacred Thunder Pipe to try to turn aside their 
vengeance! Do not argue with me! You may go!” 

The woman looked up into his stern face, then 
arose and went out, crying, and I suddenly had 
great pity for her, and for Long Wolf too. I was 
thinking that I should ask the old man to try to 
help him, when he turned to me and said: “There 
you have the answer to your doubts! Go at once 
and sacrifice to the gods; beg them to forgive your 
bad thoughts in the night!” 

There was something that I wanted to ask him, 
but I saw that this was not the time for it. I went 
home, got a beautiful belt of which I was very 
proud, carried it off into the timber, and tying it 
to a limb, offered it to Sun through my helper. 
Ancient Raven. Then, having prayed, I returned 
home. 

Twice, during the day, I went to Red Wings’ 
lodge to consult him and each time found him en- 
tertaining friends. What a long day that was! I 
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Seizer of Eagles 

wanted him to tell me that I could now begin 
seizing eagles. I was tempted to go right out to 
some high butte and dig a pit; It was hard to sit 
Idle In my lodge when I so much wanted to be doing 
my chosen work! Nor could I keep my mind off 
Long Wolf, suffering so terribly for taking his 
white brother’s word for truth. All day long I 
could hear old Red Robe doctoring him, hear him 
singing and praying while, meantime, he applied 
herb poultices to black-swollen arm and hand. I 
heard the women saying that all the Sun priests of 
the camp had refused to go to the sick one’s lodge, 
and that of all the doctors, men and women. Red 
Robe alone was trying to make a cure. 

At last, near sunset, I saw Red Wings’ guests 
depart, and hurried to get speech with him. 

‘‘I am anxious to begin seizing eagles. Tell me 
a good place where, to-morrow, I may start dig- 
ging a pit,” I said. 

He smiled, slowly shook his head and answered : 
‘‘Not to-morrow, my son! Not for many to- 
morrows — many moons, perhaps!” 

IIS 


Seizer of Eagles 

‘‘But I have had my vision! I have a powerful 
helper now, Ancient Raven himself — ’’ I cried. 

He signed me to be still. “I will question you,’’ 
he said. “Now, who wear eagle tail feathers, and 
why?” 

“Men wear them; because they are very beau- 
tiful,” I answered. 

“Feathers of some mountain birds, and of some 
of the water are even more beautiful, but are they 
worn, used for any purpose? No! Men wear war 
bonnets of eagle tail feathers, fringe their shields 
with them, not for their beauty, but because they 
are feathers of Sun’s own bird, emblems of brav- 
ery, and so a protection in war. And so it is that 
none but the brave, men who have fought the 
enemy and counted coup upon them, may be 
catchers of eagles.” 

“But I can count a coup; did I not kill a real 
bear, up there where I fasted?” 

“Not enough of a coup for a seizer of eagles! I 
now remind you of your promise to me ; that if I 
would help you to become a seizer of eagles, you 
ii6 


Seizer of Eagles 

would never step from the trail that I marked out 
for you.” 

‘‘Those were my words; I still say them,” I 
answered. 

“Good! Your trail now leads to the enemy! 
When you have faced them, and counted coup 
upon them — even one coup — then, and not 
until then may you attempt to seize the far-blue 
flyers,” he ended, and with a wave of his hand 
signed that I could go. 

“Red Wings says that I must go to war,” I told 
my mother when I had come into our lodge. 

“Oh, no! Not yet, my son, later; after two or 
three more winters — ” 

“Oh, yes! Of course he will go! Now! Just as 
soon as any war-party leader will take him for his 
pipe-carrier,” my grandmother told her. 

My mother said no more, but cried a little as she 
prepared our evening meal. 

I had always known that I should go to war; all 
youths looked forward to that, except — rarely — 
one who was a born coward. There was such a one 
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Seizer of Eagles 

now in our camp, a man grown, disowned by his 
family, made by the chiefs to wear a woman’s dress 
and do the work of women. His was a hard life ! I 
shivered as I thought of him! I wondered how I 
should feel when I met the enemy. I should have 
fear of them? Yes. But I should call upon Sun 
and Ancient Raven to protect me, and do my best 
to count at least one coup. My heart was away 
down that night; too long was my trail to an eagle 
pit! 


CHAPTER VI 


A t meal-time, next morning, we heard loud 
wailing in the lodges of the Never Laugh clan ; 
Long Wolf was dead ! 

‘‘Ha! He got just what he deserved! It will be 
a long time before others of our youths listen to the 
white traders, and attempt to follow their trail !’^ 
my grandmother exclaimed. 

“But he was so young; he had not attained good 
sense. I had great pity for him!” my mother said. 

“I hoped that he would be allowed to recover,” 
said I 

“I just will not sit here and hear you pity such 
as he was! I shall go eat my morning food 
with Heavy Runner’s women!” my grandmother 
scolded, and out she went, sniffing and snorting 
and muttering to herself. 

“Always cross, always scolding us! We never 
can say anything — do anything to please her!” I 
said. 


Seizer of Eagles 

“Her many winters sit heavy upon her; we must ^ 
always be patient with her crossness,” my mother j 
told me. 

We ate our meat In silence, my mother, I well 
knew, grieving over the thought of the dangers that 
I must soon face. I was wondering how soon, and 
with whom, I should be taking the trail to the 
enemy. 

The meal ended, I went out to find my horses " 
and drive them to water, Sinuski and Nipoka fol- 
lowing close at my heels. The wolf pup was so fat 
that he would soon tire and lag behind, and I 
would then carry him for a time. I noticed that 
he was much more inquisitive than were dog pups 
of his age; he was already sniffing at rocks, bushes, 
hummocks of grass, and would often turn aside to 
follow a little way the trail of some animal that had 
passed in the night. When I found the horses and 
mounted one of them, I always had him ride in 
front of me, and he liked that above all things, tell- 
ing me so by wagging his fuzzy tail and trying to 
reach up and lick my face. 


120 


Seizer of Eagles 

This morning as I drove the horses in, women of 
the Never Laugh clan passed me on their way to 
put the body of Long Wolf up into some near-by 
tree. It was bound in a great roll of robes, and 
drawn by an old travois horse which one of the 
women led. I felt great pity for the mourners, and 
for him who, but a few mornings back, had come 
to me at the old eagle pit and boasted what he 
would do there ! And now — his shadow was al- 
ready away out in the Sand Hills, there forever to 
lead the dreary life of the dead! I hoped that that 
would not soon be my fate. I prayed Ancient 
Raven to beg Sun to give me a full, long life. 

Having watered the horses and turned them loose 
to graze out into the hills, I went first to Red 
Wings, and then to Heavy Runner to ask if they 
knew of any one getting up a war party. They 
gave me the names of three men, and I went to one 
after another and pleaded to be allowed to go with 
him as his pipe-bearer, stating that I had taken 
my lone fast and obtained a powerful helper. Each 
one answered that I had come too late; he had al- 


I2I 


Seizer of Eagles 

ready selected a youth to carry his pipe and wait 
upon him. Terribly disappointed, I went back to 
Red Wings, and got some comfort from him; he 
said that I was not to feel bad, that other parties 
would be going out later on, and I should be al- 
lowed to join one or another of them. In the mean- 
time, I was to use his gun when I needed it, and 
keep his lodge supplied with meat and hides, as well 
as my own lodge. He then had his sits-beside-him 
woman hand him a certain parfleche, and, after 
much fumbling of its lacings, opened it and drew 
out, to my astonishment, two Redcoat traders’ 
beaver traps. 

“There!” he exclaimed, as he tossed them clink- 
ing to the ground in front of me. “Long have they 
lain idle in that parfleche! Never have I loaned 
them — men are always careless of things they 
borrow — but now I loan them to you for I know 
that you are not careless, young though you are. 
Use them, trap as many beavers as possible while 
you wait for the chance to go to war. Why, you may 
take enough hides with which to trade for a gun!” 


122 


Seizer of Eagles 

^‘But I don’t know how to set traps for beavers,” 
I told him. “The Kaina trappers never would let 
me go with them to see how it is done. Each one 
of them has his secret way to get the best of the 
wise wood-cutters, and keeps it to himself.” 

“Oh, yes, I know, they, and our trappers too, all 
make great talk about wonderful ways they have 
discovered to do their work. But here is the truth: 
there are but two or three ways to set beaver traps, 
and all trappers learn from their elders, or find out 
for themselves what those ways are. Come! The 
day is young; bring in two horses; old though I am, 
I shall teach you how to trap the wise little tree- 
cutters!” 

I ran in two of my horses, and while saddling 
them heard the old man singing the Wolf Song, 
heard him then say to his women: “Hai! But it is 
a long time since I have sung that brings-success- 
to-the-hunter song! Somehow, I feel strong this 
morning; strong to help my young relative. In 
doing this, my own youth seems to come back to 
me!” 


123 


Seizer of Eagles 

Out he came from the lodge, gun in one hand 
and traps in the other, handed the traps to me, 
and climbed up into his saddle. “Now we go! 
Beavers, you are to die!” he cried, and led off 
down the valley. He had put on a cap made of the 
head skin of a wolf; the black nose of it projected 
well out from his forehead, and the broad, smoothly 
dried ears pointed forward. Looking back at me, 
he put a hand to it and said: “Some day I shall 
give you this head covering; it is a powerful help to 
the hunter!” 


CHAPTER VII 


EAVING the valley well below camp, we 



J — ^ turned off southwest over a timber and prai- 
rie ridge, and struck the south fork of Two Medi- 
cine Lodges River. Here and there along it was 
much sign of beavers, ponds new and old, and 
cuttings of timber around them. But the big game 
trail that we were now following was well packed 
by the travel of our hunters and trappers, and the 
old man led steadily on, calling back to me: “I 
knew that our men would be trapping here, but 
never mind, I ’ll soon show you some beaver ponds 
that I am sure they have not found.” 

After riding up the valley past the last of the 
ponds, we turned north up the steep, heavily 
timbered slope, following up a stream that was in 
most places just a trickle of water no wider than 
my two hands. Looking at it, I felt sure that bea- 
vers could not inhabit so small a stream. The old 
man had forgotten the trails of his long-ago 


125 


Seizer of Eagles 

trapping days; he was heading straight up to the 
bare, rocky crests of the mountains! I wanted 
to, but did not dare, ask him if he had not lost his 
way. 

Up and up we went, and after what seemed to 
me a very long time, came into a wide, round basin 
between two mountains. Here the old man turned 
to the north up the side of the basin, brought his 
horse to a stand upon an open slide of rock and 
called to me to ride up beside him. I did so, and he 
pointed down. I could hardly believe my eyes; 
there in the center of the basin, surrounded with a 
thick growth of quaking aspens and cottonwoods 
and willows, was a string of five large beaver ponds. 
It did not seem possible that the little streamlet 
that we had followed could ever have furnished 
enough water to fill them, but there they were, their 
little waves glittering in the light of Sun 

“I just brought you up here so you could see 
them all as they lie. Don’t they look like plenty of 
skins for you ?” the old man asked. 

‘‘Yes, they do look so,” I answered in a small 
iz6 


Seizer of Eagles 

voice, and felt very small, very much ashamed 
that I had doubted his sense of direction. 

“The last time I was here — oh, how many, 
many summers back! — there were but two ponds. 
And now they are five! I am glad of that for your 
sake! Let us hurry down to them! From those 
ponds, if you follow my teaching, you shall obtain 
the gun that you so much need!” he said. 

We left our horses just below the lower pond 
and proceeded to it on foot. Its dam had been 
recently heightened and strengthened with cut- 
tings of willows and plasterings of mud. Many 
trails ran out from it into the grove ; three new and 
four old lodges rose high above the water at its 
upper end. “Counting five to the lodge, old and 
young, there are no less than thirty-five beavers in 
this one pond,” the old man told me, and paused 
before a well-used trail. Where it steeply sloped 
down the bank into the water it was very smooth 
and hard, and still wet from the passing of the 
workers during the night. 

And now the old man showed me how to set a 
127 


Seizer of Eagles 

trap for beavers, carefully explaining the reason 
for everything that he did. First, though, he said 
that a trap must be so set that the beaver could not 
possibly get ashore with it, nor into shallow water, 
else he would gnaw his caught leg free from the 
jaws and make his escape. 

He now cut a willow chain pole about three steps 
in length, with a stout fork at its tip, and at its butt 
small enough to slip easily through the ring of the 
chain; the many small branches along it were 
lopped off with an out-slanting cut, so that the 
ring would slide past them, but not back, the slight, 
forward fork that they made from the pole pre- 
venting that. The ring could not, of course, slip 
over the forked tip of the pole. The trap was now 
set, the two springs being turned against the jaw 
that was held down by the trigger of the pan; this 
allowing the other jaw to fall a little below the 
level of the pan. Next, the trap was lowered into 
the water at the foot of the slide, a little way out 
from it, and at a depth of about two hands was 
worked into the mud so that it lay level and would 
128 


Seizer of Eagles 

not slide off into deeper water. When the beaver 
swam to the foot of the slide to climb it, he would 
place his forepaws upon it and let his hind part 
sink, and one or the other of his hind feet would 
strike the pan, and the jaws would grip the leg. It 
was essential that the trap should always be set 
well below the reach of the beaver’s forelegs, for 
they were so small and weak that the animal could 
easily twist himself free from them. 

The trap now in place, and the chain ring slipped 
upon the pole, the old man knelt at the edge of the 
bank and forced the butt of the pole deep into it 
at one side of the slide, and well under water, and 
so slanted that the tip, straight out in the pond, 
was upon or close to the bottom; no part of the pole 
was in sight above the surface of the water. Lastly, 
to prevent the pole being swung one way or the 
other in against the shore, two stout pegs were 
driven deep into the mud upon each side of it, a 
little way out from the bank and under water, their 
upper ends crossing so that the pole could be raised 
no more than it could be drawn sideways. That 
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Seizer of Eagles 

done, the old man scooped water with one hand, 
dashing it upon the slide, and where he had knelt, 
destroying all scent of him, and then lightly tip- 
toed his way back to where I stood. 

“There, that trap is set, well set,” he said. “To- 
night, on his way to this wood-cutting trail, a bea- 
ver will get a hind foot in it. When the jaws snap 
shut and terrible pain and fear run all through his 
body, he will think that some enemy of the shore is 
at him, turn and dive for deep water, drawing trap 
and chain as he goes. The chain ring slips out 
along the pole, stops short when it strikes the 
forked tip; the beaver can go no farther and turns 
and tries to swim back to land to gnaw off his 
caught leg. But the chain ring strikes one of the 
little limb projections and brings the beaver to a 
stop with a jerk; he is now needing air and comes 
to the top, pawing the water, making it boil and 
foam as he tries to keep the heavy trap and chain 
from dragging him down. But down he goes; 
comes back to the surface once, perhaps twice, and 
gets a breath of air, and sinks for the last time; a 
130 


Seizer of Eagles 

few bubbles of air come up from him; that is the 
end; he lies there on the bottom, drowned!’’ 

‘‘You tell it as though you had seen a beaver get 
into a trap,” I said. 

“Yes, three times I have seen that, and each 
time it was the same; a dive for deep water, a 
struggle for air, and all over while one would be 
counting fifty!” 

“You spoke of two or three ways of catching 
beavers.” 

“Yes. In winter, when the beavers are not using 
the slides, a hole is cut in the ice close to one of their 
lodges. Looking down through it, the entrances to 
the lodge can be seen. In front of these the traps 
are set by being carefully lowered with a stick, 
the chain ring sliding down a long, smooth pole 
that has been driven deep into the bottom mud, 
the upper end being held in place by the ice. And 
now for the one other way to trap these wise wood- 
cutters: Like men, dogs, wolves and other ani- 
mals, they are very inquisitive ; most of all they are 
always wanting to know who of their kind have 

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Seizer of Eagles 

been traveling about. The trapper takes advantage 
of that; having caught a beaver, he takes out its 
scent glands, full of yellow, thick stuff of power- 
fully strong odor, and having set his trap, he puts 
a little of this on the end of a twig that he sticks 
into the mud so that it stands well above the 
water and close to the trap. The first beaver that 
comes along swims straight to the stick to smell it, 
as he pauses letting his hind part sink; one of his 
hind feet strikes the trap pan, and that is the end 
for him! The trapper should always carry some of 
this scent, for it is most useful where traps cannot 
be set at the foot of slides owing to the shallowness 
of the water. Where that is the case, as in many 
ponds, and along some parts of streams, one has 
only to go above or below until he finds sufficient 
depth of water near the bank, and there set and 
scent his trap.” 

“And that is all?” 

“Yes, except that, when one wants to trap in a 
pond that has too shallow water at the foot of the 
slides, and he has no gland scent, then he may tear 
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Seizer of Eagles 

out a small part of the top of the dam, just enough 
to let a little water run through it, and then upon 
the inner slope of the dam set the trap just as he 
would at the foot of a slide, placing it at the right 
depth in front of the torn-out place. In the evening, 
as soon as they come out from their lodges, the bea- 
vers will know that the dam has been broken, and 
the first one hurrying there to repair it will get into 
the trap. Myself, I do not like that way of trap- 
ping. Just you begin tearing a place in a dam and 
you will learn what hard work is; the mud-and- 
stone-packed willows and cuttings of small trees 
are interwoven so tightly that it is all but impos- 
sible to pull them apart!” 

“Great-uncle, you are very good to me this 
day,” I said. “You have shown me how to set 
traps for beavers, taught me all that you know 
about catching them. The next time I hear any 
one bragging about his wonderful, secret way of 
trapping I am afraid that I shall laugh at him.” 

“No, don’t do that!” the old man exclaimed. 
“Never laugh at braggers, and let liars tell their 

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Seizer of Eagles 

lies and go in peace ; that, my son, is the way to 
get along. Would you be a chief, and that is what 
I want to see you before I die, then be not only 
brave, honest, generous, but listen pleasantly to 
the foolish, as you do to the wise of our people! 
But enough! We now set the other trap, and go 
home.’^ 

It was I set it, at a slide farther up the pond, and 
when I finished and turned from the shore, the old 
man said that he could not better have placed it. 

Sun was just coming in sight, the next morning, 
when I hurried to the river for my bath with Sin- 
uski and the pup. Then, hastily putting on my 
clothes, I ran in the horses, saddled one of them, 
ate a little meat, and was off to see my traps, the 
pup stowed in his sack at the saddle-bow, and the 
dog closely following. With Red Wings’ gun across 
my lap, and sitting straight, I rode out through 
camp pretending not to see, but eagerly watching 
the people to learn if they were looking at me. 
Well-clothed, well-mounted, and carrying a gun, 
I was very proud of myself, and thought that I was 

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well worth their following eyes. Two other trap- 
pers were going my way, and I rode with them 
across the ridge to the south fork of the river, along 
which they had their traps. One of them asked me 
where I had mine set, and I answered: “Oh, up 
there a little way. ” They laughed, and the other 
said: “We know the place. You will probably see 
us up there a day or two later on.” 

That hurt ! I did n’t want to see any one in my 
trapping-ground. I wanted the five ponds all for 
my own! On my way up the little creek that flowed 
from them, I saw a number of deer, and a few elk, 
but was now so anxious to get to my traps that I 
did not try to kill one of them. The nearer I rode 
to the ponds the more excited I became, until, at 
last, when I sighted the lower one and sprang from 
my horse, I was so anxious — by turns hopeful and 
so doubtful of my luck — that I trembled as I tied 
the horse and let Nipoka out of his riding-sack. I 
ran to the pond, stopped short at the head of the 
first slide, and stared into the water. I could see 
the trap pole as far out as the pegs that held it 


Seizer of Eagles 

down; beyond, all was hidden by the glitter of the 
water. The pole had not been even shaken, I 
thought. The foot of the slide was not wet and 
shiny as it had been on the previous morning. All 
for nothing had been the old man’s careful setting 
of the trap ! I was so badly disappointed that I felt 
sick. I started to go on to the other trap, the one 
that I had set, then turned back, knelt at the edge 
of the slide and with a slender stick began to poke 
in the mud for this trap. I had to be sure that it 
was in place. Suddenly I remembered that the ring 
of the chain had been in plain sight on the pole ; it 
was not now in sight! Out came those pegs! I 
seized the pole, tore it from its setting and began to 
draw it in ; there was a heavy drag upon it ; how my 
heart thumped as I felt that! Hand over hand I 
pulled in the pole, the chain at the end, and then 
with a surge, out came a big beaver, all humped up 
and stiff, his little forepaws drawn tight up to his 
breast. I seized hold of his tail and carried him 
dripping to the top of the bank, trap, chain pole, 
and all. Nipoka made a lunge at the body and I 
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Seizer of Eagles 

drove him off, but back he came, growling, and 
tried to bite and shake it, and I let him have his 
way. Was n’t I happy! I sat down and stared at 
the beaver, admiring his big, round body, broad, 
flat tail, and thought what a large hoop would be 
required into which to lace and dry his hide. Then 
up I sprang and ran to my trap set, and this time I 
looked for the chain ring, could not see it, and knew 
that I had another beaver. I soon had it ashore, 
this my very own catch! I freed it from the trap 
and lugged it down to the other one, and how rich 
I felt as I gazed at them lying side by side ! I had 
to catch but thirty-eight more and I could have 
a gun of my own! How long would that take at 
two beavers a day? I broke some twigs into short 
pieces for counters and figured it out: nineteen 
days. How few; in less than a moon I would have 
the number that I needed ! 

Leaving Sinuski and the pup to watch the bea- 
vers, lest some night prowler sneak off with them, 
I hurriedly but carefully reset the traps, each one 
at the foot of a slide at the upper end of the pond. 

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Then, tying the beavers each by a hind leg and 
swinging them across the saddle, I put Nipoka in 
his sack and rode home. 

My mother was all smiles and praise for me, and 
even my grandmother was for once pleased, when I 
let the beavers slide to the ground in front of our 
lodge. I was just to go inside and rest, they said. 
My work for the day was done; they would un- 
saddle my horse and turn him loose, and then skin 
and hoop the hides of my catch. My evening meal 
should be a real feast; broiled beaver tails! 

But I could n’t rest until Red Wings learned 
what I had brought from the pond. I hurried to 
his lodge and told him; explained how I had reset 
the traps, each in front of a fresh slide. In the 
morning I would have two more beavers; in nine- 
teen more days, forty beaver hides with which to 
buy a gun! 

I saw that he was smiling very queerly, while I 
talked, and thought that it was his old man’s 
amusement at my youthful eagerness, my sureness 
that I would have the number of skins I needed in 
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nineteen days. Well, perhaps I had been oversure 
of that; maybe I would be longer in getting them; 
on some mornings I might find but one beaver in 
my traps. 

But now I suddenly straightened up and looked 
at myself; my clothing; my hands. I felt my face, 
my hair; what was wrong that not only the old 
man but his women too were smiling at me so 
queerly.? 

I began to be a little angry and cried out: ‘‘Why 
are you all laughing at me ? What is wrong with me ? ” 

“Nothing is wrong with you,” the old man re- 
plied. “We smile a little because of the surprise 
that we have for you. Not for a long time are you 
to trap more beaver!” 

“What? Stop trapping when I have just begun? 
Not get skins for the gun that I need?” 

“I will attend to the trapping; for you, my son, 
you are going to war!” 

“Going to war! Going to war!” I cried, staring 
at him, doubting my ears. And at that they all 
laughed loudly. 


^39 


Seizer of Eagles 

“Enough!” the old man told his women, and 
motioned them to be silent. “We were but smiling 
at the surprise you were to have. Well, we give 
you good news, do we not?” he said to me, very 
soberly. 

“Yes. But I don’t understand. How has this 
come about?” 

“It is your grandmother’s doing.” 

“My grandmother’s!” I exclaimed. Still less did 
I understand. What had a woman to do with war? 

“Well, it was mostly her doing, and maybe I 
helped a little. For some days back she has been at 
your uncle. Heavy Runner, to make up a war 
party, and take you with him for his pipe-bearer. 
Oh, but she has used her tongue! Heavy Runner 
told her that he did not want to go against the 
enemy; he had done his share of that; the time had 
come for him to take life easy. ‘Oh, do so!’ she 
scolded. ‘Rest in your lodge! Feast and get fat! 
Neglect the one young relative that you have! 
Oh, how different it would have been if I could 
have kept him with his father’s people, my people; 

, 140 


Seizer of Eagles 

the Kaina chiefs would have been glad to teach him 
the ways of the war trail 1’ 

think that that stung your uncle. He told 
the old woman to go home and stay home, for she 
was worse than a cloud of wasps in his lodge. He 
then came and talked with me; said that he was 
growing old, too old for far trails to the camps of 
the enemy; still, he could lead one more party 
against them if none else would take you. I told 
him that it was plainly his duty to take you out, 
for he would teach you more than any one of 
another clan. Well, he is now making up his party. 
To-morrow morning I shall get out my Thunder 
Pipe for you all, and in the evening you are to leave 
for a raid upon the Assiniboines.” 

As I went home from the old man’s lodge, I had 
so much to think about that I hardly knew what I 
was doing. What a full day it had been for me ; suc- 
cess in trapping, and now the wonderful news that I 
was to go to war! That was better than trapping, 
for it meant, if I lived, that I could soon become a 
seizer of eagles! 


Seizer of Eagles 

Out in front of our lodge the women were skin- 
ning the beavers. I stopped to watch them, and 
said to my grandmother: ‘‘I hear that you have 
been making strong talk for me.” 

“Some one had to talk for you, none other 
would, not even your own mother, so I had to do 
it!” she snapped. 

“Well, here is the result of it; to-morrow eve- 
ning I take the war trail with Heavy Runner,” I 
told her. 

She stared up at me, dropping her knife, and 
covering her head with her wrap began to cry. 
My mother signed to me to go inside. I went in 
and sat down upon my couch. How very queer 
women were, I thought. There was my grand- 
mother crying, when the very thing that she had 
made great talk for was to be done. 


CHAPTER VIII 


W HEN the great camp learned that Heavy 
Runner was to lead a war party against the 
Assiniboines, men from all the different clans came 
hurrying to his lodge to say that they wanted to 
follow him. He had always been so successful a 
leader that he could have had all the men; but that 
would have left the camp defenseless. At the same 
time he did not want to offend any one by refusing 
to allow him to join the party; so, after a talk with 
Lone Walker, the head chief, he made it known 
that this time he would lead only the men of three 
bands of the All Friends Society; the Seizers, of 
which he himself was the leader, and the Braves, 
and All Crazy Dogs. A few members of these 
bands had recently gone to war with Lcne Bull, 
the war chief of the tribe, for their leader, leaving 
in all one hundred and eighty men for our party, 
including Heavy Runner and myself. Late in the 
evening he sent for me, and named the different 

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things that I was to carry: his pipe, war clothes, 
extra pairs of moccasins, several lariats, and a 
pouch containing sinew thread, awls, needles, and 
a little leather for repairing moccasins and cloth- 
ing. He then explained what my duties were to be : 
I was to supply the wood for his fire, cook his food, 
make good sleeping-places for him, be always 
ready day and night to do anything that he 
asked. 

On the following morning. Red Wings had his 
women put up a sweat lodge in which he was to 
use his Thunder Pipe in prayers for those of our 
clan who were to go out upon the war trail. When 
all was ready, and several rocks were heated to 
bright red in a fire close to the lodge, we all went 
inside, leaving our clothing and wraps at the outer 
edge of the lodge. Red Wings was there awaiting 
us, his sacred pipe exposed upon a spread of buck- 
skin in front of him. The covering of the lodge was 
of pieces of old lodge-skins; enough light came 
through them to permit us dimly to see one an- 
other. Heavy Runner sat next to the old man, on 
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Seizer of Eagles 

his right; I upon his left; ten others of our clan 
made up the circle. This was my first entrance into 
a sacred sweat lodge. I was eager for the expe- 
rience; anxious for the ceremony to begin. But 
nothing was done, no one spoke. I became so nerv- 
ous that I could n’t sit still. We could hear in 
different parts of the camp the singing of various 
sacred songs; every one of the clans had its sweat 
lodge that morning, in which were gathered those 
who were to go out with Heavy Runner. Why this 
long delay in our lodge, I wondered. Then said 
Red Wings: “While sitting here, I have been 
thinking of the trail that you are to follow, a trail 
that my feet have trod more than once. After 
leaving Hairy Cap, last butte of the Wolf Moun- 
tains, you will see Stone BulB lying out there alone 
upon the great plain. Be sure that you pause at his 

^ Stone Bull: Okwitok-Stumik. |A large rock having 
the appearance of a buffalo bull lying down. It is due east 
of the Hairy Cap, easternmost butte of the Little Rocky 
Mountains, and in the Big Bend of Milk River. It was 
greatly venerated by the Blackfeet tribes. Prayers and of- 
ferings to it were believed to bring good success in war and 
in hunting. 


H5 


Seizer of Eagles 

side ; pray to him and give of the things that you 
can spare. Very close to Sun is he!’’ 

“Our prayers and offerings he shall have,” 
Heavy Runner answered. 

The old man then called to his women to pass 
in the rocks. Some one lifted the edge of the lodge, 
and they came rolling in, fire-red, and making the 
green grass smoke, and were pushed on with sticks 
into the hole in the center of our circle that had 
been dug for them. As soon as they were in place. 
Red Wings lightly sprinkled them with a dried 
buffalo tail which he dipped into a bowl of water. 
With great hissing, dense hot steam at once filled 
the lodge, and I thought that it would strangle me. 
The others did not seem to mind it. Red Wings 
began the song of Ancient Buffalo, and before it 
was finished I breathed so much easier that I was 
able to join in the singing of it. More water was 
then sprinkled upon the rocks; the steam became 
more dense ; perspiration streamed from our bodies. 
One after another of them, we then sang the three 
other songs of the sacred pipe. That done, the old 
146 


Seizer of Eagles 

man had the women pass in a coal of fire with which 
he lit the pipe. He blew smoke to the gods above, 
to those of the earth, and the four world directions, 
and then he prayed them so earnestly for our suc- 
cess and safety away out upon the plains, that we 
all felt strong to begin the trail. He passed the 
pipe; one by one we took it, blew smoke to the 
gods, and prayed them to help us, to keep us safe 
and help us to count coups upon the enemy. So 
ended the ceremony. We reached outside for our 
wraps, took up our clothing, and ran to the river 
and plunged into it. 

Upon returning to my lodge after the ceremony, 
I saw my two beaver skins nicely laced into willow 
hoops. They had been so well fleshed that the skin 
sides were as white as snow. I turned and went to 
Red Wings about the traps that I had reset. He 
said that I was not to worry; if there were beavers 
in them, they would not spoil in a day and night 
in the cold snow water of the ponds. He would go 
up there in the morning, and continue trapping in 
the ponds as long as our camp remained where it 

147 


Seizer of Eagles 

was, and the skins that he got should be mine. I 
told him that he was too generous, and he replied 
that the sooner I was able to trade for a gun the 
i)etter he would be pleased, the less he would worry 
when the time came for me to go out alone to seize 
eagles. He did not offer to loan me his gun, nor 
did I ask him for it, well knowing that he would 
need it while going to and from the ponds; during 
my absence he was to keep my lodge supplied with 
meat as well as his own, a hard task for one so old 
and dim-eyed. 

Upon again nearing home I heard singing in the 
lodge, a man singing, I thought. I was so sur- 
prised that I stopped short to listen; men did not 
visit us to sing nor for any other purpose. But 
now I caught the words: 

“Oh ho hai yi ya! Now are the enemy to pay. 

Now are they to pay for what they have done to me! 

They who killed my son, they shall themselves be 
Killed by my son’s son! Oh ho hai yi ya yay! 

Little Otter! Little Otter! Little Otter! He, my grandson, 
Now goes forth to avenge the death of his father! 

Oh ho hai yi ya! Oh ho hai yi ya yay!” 

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Seizer of Eagles 

My grandmother was the singer! Never would I 
have known it but for the words of the song! 
Never had I heard a voice so harsh, so full of hate! 
It made me see things: dead, staring-eyed, and 
blood-smeared bodies lying about upon the plain! 

Ending her song, the old woman cried out to my 
mother: “You don’t like my song! You women 
of the Pikuni are faint hearts; you would keep 
your sons always by your lodge-fires! Well, I am 
glad that Little Otter is not of your tribe; his father 
being what he was, you just can’t spoil him!” 

“I am not spoiling him!” my mother answered. 
“I want him to go to war, but I am not to be 
blamed for feeling sad; my man, my brave, good 
man left me, never to return, so how can I help 
thinking that — ” 

“Don’t say it! Don’t dare say it; that might 
bring us bad luck!” the old woman broke in. “Oh, 
I take back my mean words to you! I feel just as 
sad, just as anxious as you do! But he will soon be 
coming in; we must hide our fears; let us smile!” 

Silently I stole away and wandered about in 
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Seizer of Eagles 

camp for a time. They never suspected that I had 
heard their talk. I was glad that I had overheard 
it, for now I knew that, underneath all her hard 
words, my grandmother had kindly feeling for my 
mother. 

That was a long day to me. Time and again I 
put on the things that I was to carry, trying dif- 
ferent ways of distributing them about my person, 
and at last decided that Heavy Runner’s pipe-roll 
and lariats should go upon my back, along with 
my bow-and-arrow case, and the cylinders con- 
taining his war clothes, his pouch of sacred things 
and mine of repairs, should hang upon each side 
of me. With them all hung upon me I seemed to 
have a large load, but they were of little weight. 

With the setting of Sun our large party gathered 
in front of Heavy Runner’s lodge, and back of us 
stood a great crowd of women and children to see 
us depart. Inside the lodge, the chief. White Bear, 
leader of the Braves, and Iron Shirt, leader of the 
All Crazy Dogs, were having a last smoke and 
council with Red Wings. My women stood just 
ISO 



OUR LARGE PARTY GATHERED IN FRONT OF HEAVY RUNNER S LODGE 





Seizer of Eagles 

behind me, and the last thing they said to me was 
that they would take the best of care of my wolf 
pup. At dusk our men came out from the lodge and 
I took my place behind Heavy Runner, who led 
off with his Seizers band. Next in line were the 
Braves, and last the All Crazy Dogs. None spoke 
as we made our way down through the great camp, 
and, heavy though their hearts were, no women of 
the crowd of them cried over our going, at least 
not so that we could hear them. A little way below 
camp we crossed the river on a log jam, and leaving 
the valley struck off southeast across the plain to 
cut a big bend off of the stream. 

With the first faint, white light of coming day 
we were still cutting the big bend, but were now 
quite close to the breaks of the river. A little way 
farther on we came to a halt upon the end of a 
ridge from which we could see up and down the 
valley, and there, all lying down, we awaited the 
rising of Sun. Up he came and we all prayed to 
him and were cheered. Herds of buffalo and ante- 
lope here and there upon the plain, and down under 
iSi 


Seizer of Eagles 

US in the valley made us still more happy. Heavy 
Runner told off five men to kill some meat for us. 
We watched them sneak down a deep coulee run- 
ning into the river; a bend in it hid them from us 
as they neared a small band of buffalo. We were 
very hungry for some of that good meat, so eager 
for our hunters to make a good killing that it was 
hard to sit still. 

‘‘If they fail to kill it will be a long time before 
we eat, for the running herd will frighten all the 
game out of the valley,” some one said. 

“They probably will fail to kill!” said another. 

“Absolutely close your mouths, you bringers of 
bad luck! Just for that talk you two shall have 
only the hooves to eat,” Heavy Runner told them; 
and we all laughed. 

And now we saw five puffs of smoke down in the 
sagebrush at the edge of the coulee; five guns 
boomed ; the herd of buffalo surged together and 
ran off down the bottom, leaving two of their num- 
ber sprawling upon the ground, and a third running 
about in a circle. As it stumbled against one of the 
152 


Seizer of Eagles 

others and dropped beside it, we all sprang up and 
hurried down the slope. There were soon four men 
skinning each one of the buffalo. We surrounded 
them and sat down, waiting patiently for the meat 
to be properly cut up. When that was done, I was 
the first to the pile of it for our band, and asked 
the cutters for a tongue and some ribs for my 
chief. They were quickly handed to me. 

Camp was now made in a big grove near our kill, 
and each of the bands soon had six or eight small 
fires burning. Heavy Runner chose a resting-place 
in some willows close to the river, and some dis- 
tance from the long camp and its talk and laughter. 
Leaders of war parties always did that, so as not 
to be disturbed in their prayers, and dreams. Be- 
fore lying down to sleep they prayed that they be 
given revealing dreams — visions of what danger, 
if any, was ahead upon the trail, so that they would 
know what to do, whether to face it or avoid it. 

I had heard so much about the duties of pipe- 
bearers that I did not need to be told what to do 
now. First, I built a small fire, and then collected 
IS3 


Seizer of Eagles 

several armfuls of dead grass and leaves for a soft 
bed for the chief. Then, when the fire had burned 
to a good bed of coals, I broiled the buffalo tongue 
for him — it was all that he wanted — and some 
rib meat for myself. We ate all that I had cooked, 
and he then had me invite White Bear and Iron 
Shirt to smoke three pipefuls with him. I sat to one 
side of them, putting a stick upon the fire now and 
then, and listening to their talk. 

Heavy Runner said that he would leave to them 
the daily naming of the men who were to stand 
watch while we slept. The number of them would 
depend upon the kind of country we were in, and 
always, at midday, the morning watchers were to 
be relieved by fresh men. Then there was much 
talk about the route we were to take to the enemy 
camp, which was believed to be in the vicinity of 
the mouth of Little River, in a bottom of Big River, 
or not far north of it. Iron Shirt argued that we 
should follow Big River until fresh signs of the 
enemy were discovered, but Heavy Runner agreed 
with White Bear that that route was too rough, 
IS4 


Seizer of Eagles 

and decided that we should go down Two Medicine 
Lodges River to Bear River, down it to Big River, 
and then strike out across the plain to the Bear- 
Paw Mountains, thence along the east slope of the 
Wolf Mountains and on to Little River, which we 
should strike in its Big Bend. 

When the third pipeful had been smoked, and 
his guests had gone back to their men to send out 
the watchers. Heavy Runner told me that I could 
go over to the main camp to sleep, and in the late 
afternoon return to learn if he wanted anything. 
As I left him, he was beginning his prayers for a 
revealing dream. I went to the camp of the Seiz- 
ers, the most of them still sitting around their 
little fires, smoking, telling stories, and joking with 
one another. Several tried to joke with me, want- 
ing to know how I liked making a pack-horse of 
myself; what had been my argument in the talk 
about our route; how many coups I expected to 
count when we should strike the enemy. But I 
was too tired to answer; I lay down at the foot of a 
big cottonwood and at once fell asleep. 

X55 


Seizer of Eagles 

In the middle of the afternoon Sun shining hot 
upon my face awoke me and I sat up, hardly know- 
ing where I was. Away down through the grove, 
as far as I could see, were sleeping men. I got up 
and went noiselessly up to the camp of my chief, 
saw that he was still asleep, so lay down again, and 
again slept soundly. Sun was low in the west when 
next I awoke. Heavy Runner was calling to me to 
go into the river. It was already full of men swim- 
ming and splashing about. The water freshened us. 
We came out of it, dressed, combed out and re- 
braided our hair, and then I hurried to build a fire 
and cook the evening meal. A little while before 
dusk the watchers came in from the rims of the 
valley, reported the country quiet, and hurriedly 
ate the meat that had been broiled for them. I put 
on my load of things and followed my uncle over 
to the big camp, where he talked with Iron Shirt 
and White Bear until all were ready to take the* 
trail. I heard him say that he had had no dream. 

During the night we passed the different streams 
running into Two Medicine Lodges River, and at 

156 


Seizer of Eagles 

daylight crossed the last one of them, Cutbank, and 
so made camp upon the beginning of Bear River. 
We were three nights following it down, meeting 
no adventure of any kind, and making our last 
camp upon it not far from its junction with Big 
River. We were here only a half-day of foot travel 
from the fort of the Long Knives traders, and while 
we were eating our morning meal. Iron Shirt and 
White Bear this time with my uncle and me at our 
little fire, there was talk about the fort, its rooms 
full of trade goods, and much was said about the 
chief of the fort. Long Hair (Alexander Culbert- 
son), who was married to one of the women of the 
Pikuni. Heavy Runner declared that he was a real 
man, kind-hearted, brave, truthful. 

The talk made me very wistful to see that won- 
derful fort with its shining heavy guns, its beau- 
tiful and useful goods, and to meet its kind chief. 
I wondered if he would take any notice of me, just 
a boy? I said to myself that he should take notice 
of me; that I should make myself worth being 
noticed by him. I should soon be seizing eagles, 
IS7 


Seizer of Eagles 

and trading their tails for buffalo robes, furs of all 
kinds, and horses. Dressed all in my best clothes 
and riding a fine horse, I should appear at the fort. 
Behind me would be my mother and grandmother, 
also riding good horses and driving others loaded 
with the robes and furs, many loads of them. By 
that time I should have my new name. The white 
chief would be told of my arrival, and come out and 
greet me: ‘‘Old Sun, you are welcome in my fort 
this day. Enter! Enter and feast with me.’’ Then, 
later on, we would all go into the trade room and I 
should say to my women: “All that I want is a 
gun and plenty of food for it; count out the skins 
for that, and with all the remaining skins and all 
the robes buy whatever you choose!” How sur- 
prised they would be when I said that to them; and 
how happy! They would buy and buy blankets, 
pretty cloths, beads, all kinds of things. They 
would go out of that fort with more of the beautiful 
and useful goods of the white men than any other 
women who ever entered it! 

Yes, such were my thoughts as I tended the little 

IS8 


Seizer of Eagles 

fire and broiled a set of antelope ribs for my uncle 
and his friends. How easy it seemed to be, my 
chosen trail to a great name, great riches, and the 
friendship of great men! Then, suddenly I had 
something else to think about ; a man came hurry- 
ing to us with the news that many horse tracks, no 
more than a day old, were plain in the game trails 
just below camp! 

Upon hearing that, both Iron Shirt and White 
Bear sprang up and were about to rush away to 
their bands when my uncle halted them. 

“Calm yourself! If you go before your men in 
that manner, you will get them all excited, and 
that will not do; excited men, especially the young 
who have had little experience upon the war trail, 
make poor fighters!” he told them. “Go quietly 
and say that, if enemies are somewhere near us, we 
must try to make sure that not even one of them 
escapes. Say that we are a very large and powerful 
party, and can overcome any enemies we may find 
if we only hold ourselves steady and use our heads. 
Then select four or five of your best men to scout 
IS9 


Seizer of Eagles 

down the valley as far as Big River, and no far- 
ther, and then return and let us know what they 
have learned. There! You may go T’ 

They left us, quiet enough now, and perhaps a 
little ashamed of their sudden excitement. And 
when they had gone, my uncle said to himself 
more than to me: ‘T don’t understand this! I 
have had no vision of warning; it does n’t seem 
possible that my sacred helper has deserted me. 
No. I shall not believe that!” He then called for 
his pipe, and when I had handed it to him, told me 
to tell the leaders of the bands that tired men make 
poor fighters; that they must get their men to lie 
down and sleep as usual. I went over to the main 
camp just in time to see the scouts start off down 
the valley, and others told off to stand watch as 
usual up on the near rims of the plain. Delivering 
my uncle’s message to Iron Shirt, I went on to 
the circle of the Seizers and lay down near them; 
told myself to sleep, said a prayer to Ancient 
Raven, and slept. 

Sun was in the middle when we were aroused by 
i6o 


Seizer of Eagles 

our watchers running in with the news that a large 
body of riders was coming up the valley. Our scouts 
who had gone down upon discovery had not re- 
turned. The watchers said that the riders were a 
long way off; that they were not coming on very 
fast; there would be plenty of time for all to put 
on their war clothes. I ran up through the timber 
to my uncle and found him asleep ; he was n’t at all 
excited when I wakened him and told him what 
was coming. He told me to get out his war clothes 
while he painted himself, and then sang a war song 
while he was doing that. I had never seen his war 
clothes. Weasel skin and scalp-fringed shirt and 
leggins of soft, white bighorn leather, war bonnet of 
horns and eagle tail feathers, big, thick shield 
rimmed with eagle feathers, and moccasins em- 
broidered all over with quill-work of different col- 
ors ; one by one I got them out and he put them on, 
and when he had done I knew that I had never 
seen clothes so beautiful. And how truly was he a 
chief ; a great chief he was as he stood there before 
me, so strong, so sure of himself! I was proud, 

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Seizer of Eagles 

proud that he was my uncle! As we started for the 
main camp, he told me that I must stick right with 
him, waste not a single one of my arrows, and, no 
matter how I felt, show no fear of the enemy. If he 
fell, I was to take his gun and use it to the end, and 
also drop with my face to the enemy. I promised 
him that I would do just that. 

All dressed in their war clothes and freshly 
painted, our party was waiting for us. White Bear 
had sent two men out to the slope of the valley to 
see what progress the riders were making. They 
now came running back and said that the party 
was upon our side of the river, and would soon 
enter the bottom in which we were. 

‘‘Good! The sooner the better! And a better 
place we could not have than this to meet them! 
Follow me, my children, and let me be proud of 
you this day!” my uncle cried. He led us on the 
run to the lower end of the grove; there, close at 
our right, was the river, running deep under a high 
cutbank. Upon our left, only a narrow strip of 
sagebrush flat separated the timber from the very 
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Seizer of Eagles 

Steep and coulee-cut slope running up to the plain, 
too steep for a horse to climb. We lined up in the 
edge of the timber and faced that open strip, lying 
flat behind trees, and in the shelter of rose-brush 
and clumps of willows, weapons in hand, ready to 
spring up and fire when my uncle should give the 
word. He had placed the Braves band at the last 
end of the grove; next to it the All Crazy Dogs; so 
he and his Seizers band formed the upper end of 
the line. 


CHAPTER IX 


S EPARATING the bottom that we were in 
from the next one below, was a narrow ridge 
running down from the plain and ending in a bluff 
that the river was undercutting. We kept our eyes 
upon the deep-worn game trail crossing the ridge, 
and soon heard the thudding of many hooves, faint 
at first, growing more and more plain; and then, 
ten or twelve of them abreast, the riders came in 
sight, broad-shouldered, heavy-bodied men, and 
heavy-faced. Many of them wore no head cover- 
ing, and we saw that their hair was parted in the 
middle, a braid falling in front of each ear. My 
uncle whispered to me that they were Assiniboines. 
They came pouring over the ridge; more and more 
of them, talking, laughing, keeping their horses 
on a steady trot. I saw that many of them carried 
guns, as well as bow-and-arrow cases upon their 
backs. They had shields at their sides; war clothes 
cylinders tied to their saddles; they were as many 
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as we, a powerful party of our worst enemy tribe! 
I was afraid of them, oh, terribly afraid! I had a 
sickness inside me! Again my uncle whispered to 
me: “Don’t look like that! Don’t fear them; take 
courage!” 

I took courage ; just seized it ! I called to Ancient 
Raven for help. Told Sun to bring me safely 
through this fight and I would torture my body for 
him! I said to myself that these were the killers of 
my father; here was my chance to avenge him and 
I must do it! So was it with me while the enemy 
were coming down the ridge. Just as the last of 
them passed from the foot of the ridge into the 
narrow flat, my uncle shouted our battle cry and 
led us out to head the party off; at the same time 
the Braves ran out to prevent a retreat back over 
the ridge, and the All Crazy Dogs broke from cover 
to attack the center of the column. We were all 
firing our weapons from the time we broke into the 
open, and shouting our war cry too; the noise that 
we made was deafening. 

We took the enemy completely by surprise; 

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Seizer of Eagles 

those carrying guns had them in leather covers 
and could not at once draw them, and all bows 
were cased. I saw many riders and a few horses go 
down before ever a ball or arrow was fired at us. 
That is, I just glimpsed them, and some wounded 
horses rushing around and around in all directions 
and squealing horribly and kicking. Then, shout- 
ing their war cry, the enemy began shooting at us 
as well as they could from their frightened horses. 
Some of the animals tried to climb the steep valley 
slope ; others attempted to break through the crowd 
of us, but turned and kept charging around in all 
directions and getting nowhere. 

I let fly my first arrow at a man and missed him, 
and my second one struck into the neck of a horse 
that reared straight up as I let go at the man upon 
its back. The man slid to the ground and came at 
me with a rush, and a roar of hate, raising his long- 
handled war club to strike me down. I had drawn 
three arrows from my quiver, and knew that if I 
missed with this last one of them I should never 
get a chance to draw more from my quiver. This 
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enemy was so big and strong and swift that it did 
not seem possible I could stop him! Almost I was 
about to turn and run! But I could n’t do that! 
‘‘Help, Ancient Raven, help me!” I cried, and 
gritted my teeth and stood firm, took quick aim 
and shot that arrow with all the strength that was 
in me. I saw it strike right into the center of that 
big man’s breast as I snatched at my quiver for 
more arrows. With a terrible shriek of anger and 
pain, he grasped the feathered end of it with his 
left hand and tried to pull it out, came on right for 
me, and suddenly stumbled and fell not two steps 
from me, dead as he struck the ground! Staring 
down at him, I felt as though I had come out of a 
dream. Was it really me, there with a dead enemy 
at my feet.f^ 

“Good, my son! Good! Keep on! Kill! Kill!” 
I heard my uncle shout; there he was, close beside 
me, his empty gun cast aside as he fired arrow after 
arrow at the riders all in a strange mixup so close 
in front of us. I saw that one of them, instead of 
shooting and shouting at us, was signing his crowd 
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to come to him. Many were trying to do that but 
were unable to do anything with their horses, so 
crazed with fear that they would not mind the 
tugs and jerks of their jaw ropes. A wounded and 
fallen man was struggling to his feet and shrieking 
for help; he fell again and was trampled by the 
feet of many horses. Suddenly the man who had 
been trying to get his men to him — he was the 
chief of the party, of course — sprang from his 
horse ; so did all the others, and following him, they 
rushed at the weakest part of our line, that in the 
center held by the All Crazy Dogs. 

“Quick! We must head them off!’’ my uncle 
shouted, but run though we did, and the Braves, 
too, we were too late; the All Crazy Dogs had to 
give way to that solid rush of the enemy. Using 
neither their guns nor bows, heedless of the shots 
that were dropping some of them, they ran straight 
through the narrow point of timber for the river 
and, dropping their robes, war clubs, some of them 
even their bows, a few their guns, they went splash- 
ing into the water from the high cutbank and made 

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for the shelter of the big, wide grove on the other 
side. The river was very deep, but narrow, so nar- 
row that some of the swimmers went all the way 
across beneath the surface. But of those who could 
not swim under water, how many of them failed to 
reach the other shore we never knew. Lined up 
all of us along the edge of the cutbank, we fired and 
fired our arrows into the splashing mass of swim- 
mers, and with last upthrowing of arms numbers 
of them sank in the swift, muddy water and died. 

It was no more than three steps from the far 
shore into the big grove with its heavy under- 
growth of brush, and when the last one of the 
enemy had plunged into it we suddenly ceased our 
shouting and stared at the now smooth river, and 
at one another. 

Then Iron Shirt, at the far end of our line, 
shouted to my uncle: “Chief, let us find a ford and 
hunt out those survivors!” 

“What will you kill them with — your bare 
hands? Count the gun food and the arrows that 
you have left, all of you!” he shouted back. 

169 


CHAPTER X 



‘HERE began a great searching of ball-pouches 


A and quivers. I had but one remaining arrow. 
Here and there men cried out that they had n’t 
an arrow, a single ball left. 

“Just as I thought! Right here ends our war 
trail! Quick, now, you All Crazy Dogs and Braves, 
what has the enemy done to you?” my uncle cried. 

At once came the answer: “We survive! We 
all survive!” And of my uncle’s Seizers but one 
man was wounded — not badly. It did n’t seem 
possible that we could all have come out alive 
from our attack upon the enemy, but so it was! 
Men began seizing the things that the enemy had 
dropped before jumping into the river. I wanted 
one of the guns, but was not quick enough to get it. 
In no time all the weapons were taken, and the 
robes kicked into the river. We then ran back into 
the little flat, saw that the horses of the enemy 


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Seizer of Eagles 

had gone up the bottom a little way and scattered 
out to graze. We rounded them up, every man 
for himself, and I was lucky enough to get one, 
the one that I had shot in the neck. A man seized 
its trailing rope before I could run to it, but I 
showed him, that it was my arrow still sticking in 
the skin and he gave it to me. There were not, by 
twenty-three head, enough horses for all of us, so 
those who had none were obliged to ride double 
with their more fortunate friends. Having secured 
the horses, we hurried back down the bottom and 
counted the dead, and secured their weapons. I 
took the war club of the big man that I had shot, 
but not the bow-case and quiver upon his back. 
Nor did I take his scalp; my uncle was my proof 
that I alone counted coup upon him, and that was 
enough. I was sure that I had seen a gun in his 
hand just before his horse reared up, but some one 
had got ahead of me and taken it. Three or four 
of the enemy still lived, and were quickly put out of 
their misery. In all, there upon the flat and in the 
point of the grove, we counted fifty-one dead, and 
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Seizer of Eagles 

were sure that no less than twenty more were lying 
along the bottom of the river. 

From the place of our fight we rode back to the 
camp that we had made in the grove, singing as 
loud as we could the victory song of the Pikuni, 
well knowing how it would sound in the ears of 
the survivors of the enemy, wet, half-clothed, sick 
at heart, across in the opposite grove. Dearly had 
they paid for coming into our country to raid us! 

There was now talk about the five scouts who 
had been sent down the river. Some believed that 
they had been killed by the enemy, but others said 
they would soon be with us, and they were right; 
in they came on the run while our men were chang- 
ing back into their everyday clothes. They said 
that the big party had passed up the valley while 
they were making their way do\\^ through a grove, 
and that they had turned and come back as fast 
as they could run. A little later, when all were 
ready to move on, I took one of the scouts up be- 
hind me on my horse. He was so tired that he two 
or three times went to sleep and nearly fell off. 

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Seizer of Eagles 

Near set of Sun, Heavy Runner sent a few men 
ahead to make a killing of meat, and had us all 
slow up so as not to interfere with their approach 
to the game. It was not long before we heard 
them shooting, up in a bend of the valley, and 
when we arrived there we found them butchering 
a couple of buffalo cows. The meat was divided 
among us, I taking my uncle’s share, and we went 
into camp a little farther on. Now that we were 
homeward-bound, I did not make a separate camp 
for my uncle; we joined his Seizers band, and I 
broiled his meat upon the coals of one of their fires. 

That was a happy night for us all. One after 
another the men told what had been their expe- 
rience in the fight, and were applauded. Now at one 
fire, and then at another, a song of victory broke 
out and some of the singers got up and danced in 
time to it. Came my turn, at last, to tell what I 
had done, and when I finished, my uncle said to the 
gathering: “It is all true, my children! Just as he 
described it, so it was; I saw it all. I am proud of 
my nephew this night!” 


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Seizer of Eagles 

*‘Good for Little Ottcr!*^ — “Good youth and 
brave!’' — “He will become a great warrior! A 
strong defender of the Pikuni!” the Seizers cried, 
and I felt so happy, so proud of myself, that I 
wanted to get up and dance before them; was just 
on the point of springing up, when my uncle went 
on: 

“Yes, Seizers, Little Otter has now proved him- 
self. First, he fasted and had his vision, and killed 
a real bear, as you all know. And now he has 
counted a coup upon the enemy. This all in pre- 
paration for what he is now to be, a seizer of 
eagles!” He finished. 

I was expecting loud approval of that, and was 
surprised that I did not get it. Some of the Seizers 
stared at me curiously, as though they had never 
before seen me. Others shook their heads and one 
of them said to my uncle : 

“Chief, seizing of eagles is dangerous work; only 
those who are very close to the gods should at- 
tempt it. It seems to me that you should not en- 
courage your young relative in this; his is too val- 

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Seizer of Eagles 

uable a life to be so soon ended. Why, I myself — 
and you know that I am no coward — I would not 
think of entering an eagle pit!” 

Oh, how my heart went down when I heard 
that! Breathlessly I waited for my uncle’s reply 
to it. I saw that others eagerly listened for it, 
leaning forward and staring at him. He did not 
speak for some time. I could see that he was in 
deep thought ; and oh, how I feared that he would 
agree with the objector — would say that he, too, 
thought me too young for this sacred work! 

“Friends,” he finally answered, “it is not for 
me, just a plain fighter and hunter, to say what my 
young relative shall do. I am no Sun priest, no 
dreamer of wonderful visions. But Red Wings is 
one; you all know his power, the power that he 
has through his Thunder Pipe. Well, he is guiding 
this youth, is promising him what may seem to 
some of you the impossible. Never in our tribe has 
there been a young seizer of eagles, but I for one 
have strong faith that you will soon see this youth 
bringing eagles into camp!” 

I7S 


Seizer of Eagles 

“Maybe we shall see that; let us hope so,” said 
the objector. 

None of the others spoke; many of them con- 
tinued to look curiously at me. I knew that they 
were thinking I was soon to go to the Sand Hills. 
My uncle’s words had wiped out my fears. I 
wanted to tell them that they would soon be buy- 
ing eagle tails from me, but kept my mouth tight 
shut. I had already learned that with men it was 
deeds, not words, that counted. 

I got up at daylight the next morning and built 
the three fires in our Seizers camp, then ran to the 
river and swam, and washed my hair, and hurried 
back to the fire to dry and comb and braid it. That 
morning the men were late in getting up and 
bathing, and cooking their meat. I ate what I 
wanted, broiled some ribs for my uncle, and then 
went off into the timber with two painted and 
fringed rawhide cylinders that I took from the 
saddle of the enemy I had killed. I opened the 
covers and drew out a suit of war clothes and a 
war bonnet and admired them, had to fight hard 
176 


Seizer of Eagles 

with my desire to keep them. One by one I tied 
them to a branch of a cottonwood tree and gave 
them to Sun, praying him to continue to pity me, 
and give me success in the eagle pit that I was 
soon to dig and lie in. That done, and with never 
another look at the beautiful things I had sacrificed, 
I turned and ran back to camp and began packing 
up my uncle’s things. The watchers came in and 
had their morning meal, and then we saddled our 
Assiniboine horses and took the homeward trail. 

We slept two more nights in Bear River Valley, 
and late in the third day, when quite near home, 
we came to a halt and all the men painted them- 
selves and put on their war clothes for the victory 
entry into camp. As I had no war clothes, all that 
I could do was to paint my face, and then, smear- 
ing the palm of my right hand with thick, red 
paint, press it against the right shoulder of my 
horse, to show that I had taken him from the ene- 
my. The horse was black, so the red hand was 
plain upon his short, smooth summer hair. 

When all were ready, we mounted and rode on 
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Seizer of Eagles 

slowly until camp was sighted, and then made a 
rush across the bottom to it, singing the victory 
song, and waving the scalps that had been taken 
from the enemy. All the people ran from their 
lodges, shouting the names of their returned loved 
ones, and crying out that they were great war- 
riors, great destroyers of the hated enemy. Loud- 
est of all the shouters was my grandmother. She 
was in the center of the great crowd, but I could 
hear her voice above all the others as she named 
me, and said that I was a chief, her avenger! 
And as she shouted that over and over, she pushed 
men, women, and children right and left, forced 
her way past them as though they were but so 
many leaves, and reaching my side, snatched the 
Assiniboine war club from me, and wildly waving 
it, danced by the side of my horse, shouting: 
‘‘Little Otter! Little Otter! He has killed an 
enemy and seized an enemy horse! A real chief is 
my son’s son. Little Otter!” 

It was some time before my mother, never a 
pusher, could come to me, and when, at last, she 
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Seizer of Eagles 

did reach my side, she only smiled and took my 
hand and pressed it, tears rolling down her cheeks. 
Then the crowd began to thin out and she took 
the jaw rope of my horse from me and led on to 
our lodge, my grandmother following close behind 
and still shouting praise of me. She only ceased 
when her voice broke from the strain, and even 
then she gave an occasional croak. I dismounted 
before our lodge, hobbled my horse and let him go 
as my mother took the saddle from him. I went 
inside, asking for the wolf pup. At the sound of 
my voice he broke out from under a robe of my 
couch where he had hidden when the sudden 
uproar in camp began. I sat down and he sprang 
upon me, wagging his tail, whining, licking my 
face. He was glad to see me, more glad than Sin- 
uski, whose greeting had been only a few lazy wags 
of her tail. 

Oh, but it seemed good to be home again ; pleas- 
ant to sit upon my soft couch and see my mother 
prepare our evening meal. She set before me the 
very last of her berry pemmican, and some boiled 
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Seizer of Eagles 

moose meat. Red Wings, she said, had killed a big 
moose two days before. I asked about some beaver 
hides that I had seen back of the lodge, and was 
told that they were mine; thirteen in all; the old 
man had gone daily to the traps and turned over 
to her all the beavers that he caught. How my 
heart went out to him! My mother said that, tired 
from his trapping though he had been, and slow 
upon the trail to and from the ponds, he had never 
failed to return to camp in time to put on his war 
clothes and ride the circle of the lodges before set of 
Sun, calling out the names of us absent ones, and 
praying for our safety. 

While eating the good food, and resting so com- 
fortably upon my couch of robes, I told all about 
our party’s unexpected meeting with the Assini- 
boines, and how we had killed many of them, how 
others had drowned. I told, too, just how I had 
felt when the big Assiniboine charged at me with 
his long-handled war club. I finished, and my 
grandmother hoarsely croaked: 

“You have done well! You have made a name 
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Seizer of Eagles 

for yourself! So, now we must be packing up. 
To-morrow we will get everything ready, and on 
the following morning take the trail.’^ 

“What trail?” I asked. 

“The only one for us; the trail back to our own 
people!” she answered. 

I shook my head. 

“But you promised me that you would return 
to them!” 

“But I did not say when that should be! I am 
in no hurry to see the Kaina again! What have 
they ever done for me? Nothing! What have the 
Pikuni done for me? Plenty, and will do more!” I 
told her, a little angrily, maybe. 

She snatched up her wrap and went out beyond 
camp to cry. 

My mother sighed heavily: “Oh, how tired I 
am of hearing about the Kaina!” she exclaimed. 

And this time it was I who said that we must be 
patient with the old woman. We took up our 
wraps and went to visit in Red Wings’ lodge. 

“Ha! Here is my young warrior!” the old man 

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Seizer of Eagles 

exclaimed when we entered, and had me sit at his 
left upon his own couch. 

Heavy Runner was with him, at his right, and 
four or five more of the Seizers band. Right after 
us, Lone Walker, the head chief, and the chiefs of 
four or five clans came in, and when all were com- 
fortably seated and the pipe had been started upon 
the round of the circle, Lone Walker called upon 
Heavy Runner to relate fully our fight with the 
enemy. You can be sure that I felt proud enough 
when, in the course of his tale of it, my uncle told 
how I had faced the big Assiniboine, and with 
sure-shot arrow dropped him almost at my feet. 

All of those big chiefs clapped their hands to- 
gether when they heard that, all looked at me 
as they never had before, and Lone Walker ex- 
claimed : ‘‘ Small Robes, you should be glad to have 
as one of you this new member of your clan. I 
hear that he wants to be a seizer of eagles.” 

‘‘Small Robes blood is in his veins! We expect 
great things of him,” Heavy Runner answered. 

Said Red Wings: “A seizer of eagles he shall 
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be, if my teachings and my prayers can help 
him!’’ 

After Heavy Runner had told all about the 
fight, he went on to say that one thing greatly 
troubled him. He had prayed the gods and his 
sacred helper as usual, made sacrifices, but they 
had given him no vision of enemies near, nor far. 
Could it be that now, in his approaching old age, 
and after always successful leading of parties to 
war, he was to have no more visions of what lay 
ahead of him.? 

“Had you no dream at all in your last sleep be- 
fore the fight.?” old Red Wings asked him. 

“Yes, but not one of warning; not one hint in it 
that the enemy was near us. I just saw our camp 
of Pikuni in the Berries-Ripe moon. It was a hot 
day; men were resting in the shade of the lodges; 
women everywhere had berries spread out to dry. 
That was all.” 

“And enough! Oh, plenty!” Red Wings cried. 
“That dream was Sun’s assurance to you that all 
was well ; that you should live to see that time of 

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ripe berries. He kept from you the coming of the 
enemy, for that was to be a pleasant surprise to 
you and your men; you were to wipe out many of 
them, and yourselves all survive the fight ! ” 

“I should say that that was a powerful vision! 
Cast out your doubts, my friend. Sun still is with 
you!” Lone Walker exclaimed, and all the other 
chiefs in one way and another expressed approval 
of his words. 

It was wonderful the change those words made 
ill Heavy Runner. He had told the story of the 
fight dully, with great effort ; his face had been very 
sad; it was plain to all that his mind was not 
wholly upon what he was relating. 

But now he suddenly straightened up, and his 
face was bright as Sun himself as he clapped his 
hands and cried: ‘‘Of course! How thick-headed 
I was not to understand that dream! You have 
wiped out my doubts, my friends! I see now how 
wrong I was in my thoughts. It is as you say: 
Sun still is with me!” 

The talk turned to other things, and during the 
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Seizer of Eagles 

smoking of the third pipe, the chiefs decided that, 
the women having obtained all the lodge-poles they 
needed, we should break camp, go to the fort of the 
Long Knives south of Big River there to pass the 
summer. 

As soon as the chiefs had gone, I said to Red 
Wings: ‘‘Now that I have done all that you asked 
of me, taken my fast, counted coup upon the ene- 
my, may I not begin seizing eagles?” 

“Yes, I think that you are now fit to try it,” he 
answered. “From the Long Knives’ fort we shall 
go to Arrow River, and there, without doubt, camp 
for a long time. There you shall dig your first seiz- 
ing pit, on top of a butte just south of the river that 
is, I know, a favorite lighting place of eagles.” 

On the following morning, I went with Red 
Wings to take up our two beaver traps at the ponds, 
and in each one of them we found a drowned and 
stiff beaver of good size. As the women were very 
busy that day, preparing to break camp, the old 
man and I skinned the animals right there. 

While we were doing the work, I said to him: 
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Seizer of Eagles 

^‘How I wish that I had enough skins to trade for 
a gun, now that we are going right to the Long 
Knives’ fort. Away out by myself in an eagle pit, 
I would feel quite safe if I had one by my side.” 

“Don’t worry about that; maybe you will have 
one; a gun of your very own,” he answered. I 
asked him to explain how I could get one with only 
a few skins, but he only laughed and said: “We 
shall see what we shall see!” I wondered what he 
meant by that. 

Never had my grandmother been so cross as 
she was that day, while helping my mother to get 
our things in shape for breaking camp. Old Red 
Wings, idling about, kept his eyes upon her for a 
long time, and finally called her aside for a talk. 
I don’t know what was said, but after that she was, 
for a time, very quiet and helpful. 

We broke camp quite early the next morning 
and took the mountain trail south to Milk River, 
thence down it until opposite the fort of the Long 
Knives, just south over the ridge, where we made 
camp on the fifth day from the Two Medicine 
1 86 


Seizer of Eagles 

Lodges Lake. The chiefs went over to the fort 
that afternoon, and were given a great feast by the 
white chief, Long Hair. They returned in the eve- 
ning with the news that the trade room and store- 
houses were full of useful and beautiful goods. 
They all had tobacco and other things that had 
been given them at the end of the feast. 

Heavy Runner brought a present for his woman 
from Long Hair’s woman, who was her cousin. It 
was a little trunk, about three hands long and two 
high, with rounding top, lock and key, and painted 
red and yellow, and in it were needles, awls, spools 
of thread, and a few bunches of beautiful beads. 
The woman made great outcry over it. This 
proved, she said, that the whites were truly wise, 
and good of heart; they made not only guns and 
other things for men, but they took thought of 
women and made things for their especial use! 
What could be more useful to woman than one of 
these beautiful trunks in which to keep, and surely 
keep under lock and key, her various treasures ? 

Well, near-by women heard her exclaiming over 

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Seizer of Eagles 

her present and came to see and admire. The news 
of it spread, and there was soon a great crowd of 
women around the lodge, demanding to see this 
new making of the whites. And having seen, hav- 
ing learned that there were maybe a hundred of 
the little trunks in the trade room at the fort, 
priced at four skins each, they hurried home to 
demand of their men four skins to trade for one of 
them. Some were generous and at once handed 
over the number; others had but few skins and 
refused because they needed them for the purchase 
of very necessary things. Others, owners of many 
skins, refused to part with even one because they 
were mean-hearted misers; had no thought for any 
one but themselves. 

So, there was trouble in camp that night; many 
a woman went to bed with a veiy sad heart, and 
many a man with ears full of the opinion that oth- 
ers had of him, very different from the opinion 
that he had of himself. Never in all my many 
winters have I known such a women’s time as 
there was in camp that night! Nor was that the 


Seizer of Eagles 

end of it. Hundreds of women wanted the hundred 
trunks in the fort. Secretly, many of them per- 
suaded their men to start with them for the fort 
before daybreak, so that they would be sure to be 
present when the great gate was opened and be 
first in the trade room. Couple after couple, on 
horseback and on foot and with the necessary 
skins, sneaked out from camp in the night. Lo! 
When day came, there were twice as many buyers 
before the fort as there were trunks. And then 
what a rush for the trade room ! Women unable to 
get into it just sat down and cried over their dis- 
appointment. We began to get news of it while 
eating our morning meal, and my mother laughed 
as she had not laughed for many moons. For long 
after, that summer was sometimes spoken of as 
‘‘The-summer-when-women-bought-trunks ! ” 

Sun was well up when I brought in Red Wings’ 
horses and mine, and we set out for the fort, our 
women riding after us with what robes and skins 
we had to trade. My heart was low as I thought 
how different this was from the way I had pictured 
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myself going to the fort, dressed all in fine clothes, 
riding a big, fast buffalo-horse, and my women 
behind me with packs of furs and robes! On our 
way across the ridge I turned and said to my 
mother: ‘‘Take eight of my beaver skins, give 
grandmother eight, and the two of you trade for 
whatever you want.” She gave me a queer smile 
and made no reply. 

We approached the fort; all the talk that I had 
heard about it was nothing compared with what I 
now saw. It did not seem possible that men’s hands 
could have built a place so big, so strong. Its long, 
high, thick walls were of brown squares of dried 
mud, and at two of the corners stood out a square, 
two-story house, from holes in which stuck out big, 
yellow, shining, heavy guns, ready to be fired at 
any enemy that might come. Not all the Assini- 
boines. Crows, Sioux, and Snakes together could 
climb those walls and get inside; they would be 
wiped out by the big guns before they could get to 
the walls; wiped out as fire wipes out the dried 
grass of the plains! Wonderful beyond under- 
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standing by us prairie people were the white men, I 
said to myself. 

Leaving our horses, and the women following 
with the robes and skins. Red Wings and I passed 
in through the big gate. All around the square were 
houses, and the old man pointed out the different 
ones for me. There was the house of the big chief; 
there the trade room and row of storehouses. Those 
the houses of the employees; that the place where 
iron was made red-hot and pounded into knives, 
arrow-heads, and other useful things. White men 
were everywhere; I had not thought that there 
could be so many of them. A great crowd of our 
people were before the door of the trade room, 
waiting their turn to go in. Red Wings said that 
we should probably have to wait all day for our 
chance to trade. My heart went lower; we were 
just nothing people, I thought. 

Then from the first house on our right came 
Heavy Runner to us, and said that Bird Woman, 
Long Hair’s woman, called os. 

‘‘Not me! I’m not going in there! What do I 
191 


Seizer of Eagles 

care for these Long Knives! If it were the Redcoat 
trader’s woman, ha! gladly would I enter her place 
in the Redcoats’ fort!” my grandmother snorted. 

Red Wings turned to her: “Woman!” he cried. 
“Of all the fire-tongues I ever knew, you are the 
worst! Stay where you are ! Watch these robes and 
furs! Were you to go into that chiefs place with 
us, we should soon all be shown the doorway!” 

We left her, and went into that great house, its 
walls all shiny white. It had a big fireplace. Stand- 
ing upon its floor were things that I had never seen 
before ; table, chairs, and a high bed upon stick legs. 
We met Bird Woman, beautiful of face, long- 
haired, wearing a yellow dress with big, round blue 
spots, the prettiest cloth that I had ever seen. She 
shook hands with Red Wings and my mother, told 
them that they were welcome in her home, and 
then took my hand and said: “So this is Little 
Otter, going-to-be seizer of eagles. I am glad to see 
you here this day!” 

How her words lifted me! I had been mistaken: 
we were not just nothing people! We were re- 
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spected ; worth notice ; else we should not have been 
asked into this chief’s house. I told her that I was 
glad she had asked us in. I could n’t say more; I 
felt shy; queer; that was the first time any one 
had shaken hands with me. It was a strange way of 
greeting that the whites had. 

Bird Woman gave us a feast. Meat, of course, 
and coffee, and two things that I had never even 
seen, crackers and molasses. I thought them the 
best food that I had ever tasted. We had finished 
eating when Long Hair came into the room. Just 
by the way he entered, quickly and with firm step 
and head held high, eyes straight upon us, one 
would have known that he was a chief. Tall and 
straight he was, proud-faced, long-haired; and 
there was a kind look in his eyes. He came straight 
to us, shook hands with Red Wings, my mother, 
and then me. Heavy Runner he had seen earlier 
in the day. He spoke our language well, and when 
shaking hands with me he said, turning to Heavy 
Runner: “So this is your nephew. Little Otter, 
you told me about this morning.” And then to me: 

193 


Seizer of Eagles 

am glad to meet you this good day! Your uncle 
tells me that you are to be a seizer of eagles. You 
are young for that work; still, you have the good 
blood of the Small Robes in you, and I have noticed 
that whatever they attempt to do, they finish. 
Well, how about buying a gun? I hear that you 
need one.” 

‘‘I do need a gun, but I have n’t the skins to 
trade for it,” I answered. 

‘‘If I let you have one now, will you pay me 
forty skins for it, and five skins for its food, later 
on?” 

It did n’t seem possible that this chief was offer- 
ing me a gun on such terms, yet it was so! I tried 
to answer, but only sort of choked. Oh, how mad 
I was at my voice! I commanded it to speak! I 
raised my hand to the sky and cried: “As Sun 
sees me, I shall fully pay you for them if I live!” 

“Good! That is the way to talk. The gun is 
yours! Come and get it!” Long Hair told me. 

We all followed him into the next room, his own 
room where he kept his writings and other things, 
194 


Seizer of Eagles 

and there he handed me — I could hardly believe 
my eyes — not a flintlock, but a caplock rifle with 
twistings in its barrel which made it, I well knew, 
a far more powerful and straight shooter than a 
smooth-bore gun. And then he got from a corner 
of the room a can of powder, a sack of balls, and 
four boxes of caps and laid them upon the table be- 
fore me, and took from the wall where they were 
hanging, a powder-horn and a ball-pouch, and 
added them to the pile. 

“There you are,’’ he said. “It is not a trade 
gun that I am letting you have, but one of my own, 
and a better one I never put to my shoulder!” 

Oh, was n’t I happy! I just hugged that rifle 
to me. 

My mother spoke up: “You can pay some of 
the skins for it now; the sixteen that you gave me 
and your grandmother.” 

“But I gave them to you! You need them! I 
can’t take them back!” I answered. 

“That is right. Small Robes youth: never take 
back what you have given!” Long Hair told me. 
I9S 


Seizer of Eagles 

So It was that I got my first gun. 

It was late in the afternoon when my women 
traded in their beaver and other skins, I standing 
by and watching them. They each bought a blan- 
ket, a knife, and some red paint, and many bunches 
of beads, and were as happy with their purchases 
as I was with my gun. For once my grandmother 
was all smiles; she even sang several songs while we 
were riding homeward across the ridge. 

We remained in that camp on Milk River seven 
days, while the people traded in their robes and 
furs. They were seven long days to me, for I 
wanted to be on Arrow River. Every evening of 
them I spent in Red Wings’ lodge, talking with 
him about eagle pits and the seizing of the birds. 
Two of the days I passed in hunting away down the 
river with Sinuski and Nipoka. I wanted the wolf 
pup to learn to love the boom of a gun as much as 
his second mother did. She knew what it meant: 
meat, or a bloody trail to follow and overtake and 
pull down a wounded animal. On the first day I 
shot a whitetail deer, dropping it right where it 
196 


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stood. The pup did not flinch, even, when I fired, 
but he did n’t follow the dog when she ran to take 
the deer by the throat and try to shake it ; he looked 
at her running off, and then up at me, and knew 
not what to make of it all. But on the way home, 
when I shot a sage hen close to us, and he saw the 
feathers fly and the bird bounce and flutter about 
upon the ground, he went to it as fast as he could 
run, and Sinuski just sat and looked on while he bit 
and shook it, smearing himself with blood, and at 
last eating a lot of the torn flesh, feathers and all. 
That was where he differed from Sinuski : she would 
not touch birds ; like us, she cared only for real meat. 

I thought that seizing of the bird a promising 
beginning for the pup. On the second hunt, I shot 
a whitetail deer, badly wounding it, but because of 
the thick brush he could not see it staggering off, 
and followed Sinuski only a little way when she 
ran to pull it down. While butchering the animal, 
I tied him to a tree, for I did n’t want him to have 
a bite of meat nor a lick of blood until the hunt was 
over. I then left the timber, carrying the pup in my 
197 


Seizer of Eagles 

arms until we were well up in the bare breaks of the 
valley, when I let him follow with the dog. I soon 
, raised a big blacktail buck from his bed in the head 
of a coulee and the pup saw him as he ran off, then 
' stopped to stare at me. I fired. He fell and went 
rolling down the steep slope, and dog and pup went 
to him, Sinuski seizing his throat, but at once let- 
ting go when the pup bit into it, growling, and 
angrily jerking his fuzzy tail. I cut a gash in the 
deer’s neck and let him get at the blood and tear 
at the meat, satisfied now that I could teach him to 
be a great help to me. In camp, that evening, I 
began to train him to lie down beside me and not 
move until told to go. I saw that was to be far 
more difficult than I had thought. 

The people having traded their very last skins 
and robes, we broke camp, forded Big River just 
above the Long Knives’ fort, and took the trail to 
the south, at the end of the third day making camp 
on Arrow River. It is sunk deep down in the plain ; 
its valley is very narrow; long stretches of it are 
cliff-walled. I had heard much of the game that 
198 


Seizer of Eagles 

frequented it, but from what I now saw I knew 
that the half had not been told. Upon each side of 
it, near and far, the plain was covered with buffalo 
and antelope; bighorns were everywhere along its 
cliffs; deer and elk could be counted by hundreds 
in every one of its narrow, timbered bottoms; bea- 
vers lived in every bank of the stream that fronted 
upon deep water. They had no ponds along it, for 
well they knew that the great spring floods would 
tear out any dams that they could build. 

We w'ere to camp on Arrow River a long time, so,' 
on the morning following our arrival there, I went 
out to get meat for Red Wings’ lodge, and mine, 
the women following me. We took the trail that, 
following a big coulee, winds up and up through 
barren badland to the plain on the south side of 
the river. When we had come to the very head of 
the coulee, we discovered a large band of buffalo 
coming straight to it on their way to water. We 
turned back below the level of the plain without 
being seen, and the women dismounted. I handed 
my rifle to my mother, and got out my bow and a 
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Seizer of Eagles 

handful of arrows. I was riding Red Wings’ fast 
buffalo-horse, and was sure that I could make a 
big killing. 

The wind was from the herd to us, and before 
they came in sight, my horse smelled the buffalo 
and was so eager to break for them that I had diffi- 
culty in holding him. At last I saw the tops of the 
backs of the leaders — some old cows ; then their 
heads, and I let the horse go, and with a few leaps 
he had me right among them, as they whirled 
about and broke back for the plain. I singled out 
a big cow close ahead, rode up beside her and drove 
an arrow deep into her side, finishing her, I knew, 
for blood at once spurted from her nose. I downed 
a second cow with an arrow into her backbone 
that broke her down, and then, looking for an- 
other cow — there were only bulls close at hand 
— I saw something white among the brown backs 
ahead of them. How my heart began to thump! 
Was it possible, I thought, that what I saw was 
a white buffalo? Just then the herd split to pass 
upon either side of a big rock, and I got a glimpse 


200 


Seizer of Eagles 

of the whole animal, a two-year bull, white all 
over! 

My horse was running fast, but with my rope- 
end I made him go faster. The bulls swerved right 
and left from me. I neared the white one; he saw 
me and ran faster. I gained upon him, ranged up 
along his right side and shot an arrow into him — 
too far back! He gave a high jump and ran still 
faster, streaking ahead through the herd, I after 
him and losing ground; never had I seen a buffalo 
run so fast! He cleared the front of the herd, so did 
I, and then I saw that his wound was weakening 
him. Mad as he could be, my horse was doing his 
best, breathing hard now, covered with foamy 
sweat, but drawing nearer to the white buffalo at 
every jump. At last we got close up beside him, and 
this time I made no mistake: my arrow pierced his 
heart and down he went. I sprang to the ground 
and stood over him, and even then I could hardly 
believe that to me had come this wonder, the killing 
of one of Sun’s own animals! 

The women had watched the chase, and now 


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came riding up to me, my grandmother shouting 
my name, crying to Sun that I was to give him this, 
his sacred animal. We dared not touch it: only a 
Sun priest could skin a white buffalo. Red Wings’ 
woman went hurrying back to camp to get him to 
come and sacrifice the anirnal. 

*We went back to the two cows that I had killed, 
still so excited that our hands trembled as we 
skinned them and cut up the meat for packing. 
Then we returned to the white bull, and my grand- 
mother told of other white ones that she had seen, 
only four of them during the many winters of her 
life. She gave me great praise for having killed it, 
and then spoiled it all by demanding that we go 
north, so as to give Sun the white robe when the 
Kaina should build their great lodge to him in the 
coming Berries-Ripe moon. 

It was nearly midday when we saw a great crowd 
of riders come up over the rim of the plain and 
approach us. Red Wings and all the other Sun 
priests were in the lead with Lone Walker and some 
of the clan chiefs, and behind them were hundreds 


202 


Seizer of Eagles 

and hundreds of the people, men and women and 
children. The leaders came directly to my white 
kill, the others forming a great circle around us, 
staring at the dead animal, exclaiming how won- 
derful it was, and how glad Sun would be when it 
was given him. 

Red Wings’ sits-beside-him woman had brought 
along his Thunder Pipe and a bundle of dry wood. 
She built a little fire near the buffalo, and all the 
Sun priests and the chiefs gathered around it, with 
me beside Red Wings. He purified himself with the 
smoke of burning sweetgrass, the pipe was taken 
from its wrappings after four songs had been sung, 
and, holding it to the sky, the old man prayed Sun 
long and earnestly for full life for us all, especially 
mentioning me as the killer of the sacred white bull 
which we would give him, the meat now, the robe 
later on when it should be tanned and painted. 
That done, all arose and surrounded the bull, and, 
taking turns by fours, we skinned it carefully. 
The hide was given to Red Wings’ woman — as 
she was a sacred pipe woman — to tan, and then, 
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Seizer of Eagles 

Standing over the carcass, the old man cried out to 
Sun: ‘‘Here, now, we leave for you your sacred 
meat ! Pity us all, we pray you ! ” 

So ended the ceremony. The people mounted 
their horses and headed for camp. Red Wings 
carefully put his pipe into its wrappings, handed it 
to his woman, and said to me: “Come! Right 
now, upon this wonderful, this sacred day, I will 
show you where to dig your eagle pit.’’ 

I got my rifle from my mother, left her and my 
grandmother to pack home the meat of the two 
cows, and headed south with the old man. We 
rode quite a long way out across the plain to a lone, 
high butte, the one that he had said was a favorite 
resting-place of eagles, and, sure enough, while 
climbing to the top of it we saw no less than three 
of the great birds circling around and around above 
it. Our horses were breathing hard when they 
brought us up to the summit, which was very nar- 
row, and about fifty steps in length east and west. 
In the eastern end of it was a pit, wind-worn, half- 
filled with rotten sticks and earth that had blown 
204 


Seizer of Eagles 

into it. It was the old man’s pit. Many summers 
back he had there seized no less than seven eagles. 
He said that his shovel should be lying a little way 
down the east slope, where he had thrown it, and I 
went down and found it, the shoulder blade of a 
big bull buffalo, all yellow and green with age. 
Into the pit I went with it, shoveled some of the 
loose earth and sticks and wind-blown grass into 
my leather wrap, and then the old man lifted it out 
and, carrying it well away from the pit, so scattered 
it that no trace of it was to be seen. There must 
have been fifty loads of filling in the pit, but we 
never stopped work until the last load had been 
carried off and scattered, and the pit was like new, 
straight-walled, smooth-floored, and so deep that 
when I stood up in it, my shoulders were level with 
the top. The old man was pleased with the appear- 
ance of it, and said that I was sure to have great 
success in it, for it was in the best of all the buttes 
that he knew, and, too, there could be no doubt 
that Sun was with me in all that I did. He sang all 
the way home, where we arrived just at dark. 

205 


Seizer of Eagles 

On the following day we had the women take 
two travois-loads of willow sticks out to the pit, 
and on the next day I began to hunt for a wolf, 
needing the stuffed skin of one to attract the eagles. 
Wolves were everywhere — I must have seen more 
than a hundred during the day — but try as I 
would I could not get within rifle-shot of one of 
them. Early the next morning I left camp afoot 
and wandered down the river a long way to a deep- 
worn buffalo trail that came down a coulee into 
the valley. The east side of the coulee was a high 
rock wall; the wind was from the west. I got up 
onto the top of the wall, stuck a bunch of sage- 
brush at the edge of it for a screen, and lay down to 
watch the trail. Wolves were always following the 
buffalo; there were footprints of them in the dusty 
trail. ‘‘Come, thirsty buffalo, come to water; and 
wolves, hungry wolves, follow them!” I called, and 
prayed Ancient Raven to give me good luck and 
soon. 

I had not lain there very long when I saw a cloud 
of dust away up the coulee. Owing to its narrow- 
206 


Seizer of Eagles 

ness and snakelike bends, I could not see the coulee 
itself, no part of it farther up than a hundred steps 
from where I lay. But I knew what was making 
that dust rise: buffalo coming down to water. I 
could mark their advance by it, and as it con- 
tinued to rise all along the upper reaches of the 
slope, I knew that a very large herd was coming. 
The leaders soon appeared in the last stretch of it 
to the river, and upon sighting the water they broke 
into a run to it, passing right under me and making 
my eyes smart with the dust that their pounding 
hooves kicked up and the wind flung into my face. 
On they came, like a brown stream of water rush- 
ing over big stones in a steep slope, crowding into 
the narrow river, spreading all up and down it, 
hooking and pushing and crowding one another 
for a place to drink. 

I kept watch upon the trail, and after some 
hundreds had passed down it saw the last stragglers 
coming, a few old bulls, poor enough with their 
stubby horns, and their winter coat still clinging to 
them in ragged, yellow patches. They were not 
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Seizer of Eagles 

running; they came down the trail with the stiff 
walk of old age, and the last one of them had a 
limping foreleg. Lo! a little way behind him came 
seven wolves, all in single file, all covered with 
dust, their tongues hanging out of their mouths. 
When they had come right under me, I gave a faint 
wolf cry; they stopped short, pricking up their 
ears, looking and listening for the maker of the cry. 
I took good aim at the leader and pulled the trigger. 
Boom! Down he went, writhing in the dust. The 
others fled back up the trail, and the buffalo went 
with a thundering rush down the valley. When 
I got down to my wolf he was dead. I skinned him 
very carefully, leaving the feet attached to the 
hide, and hurried home to give it to Red Wings, 
who was to stuff it with grass. 

On the following day the old man went again 
with me to the pit, where we worked a very long 
time covering it over with willow and grass, all 
except a small space at its west end, which I was to 
cover after I had slid down into it to begin my 
watch. I say that we covered the pit, but in fact 
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Seizer of Eagles 

I did very little of the work, little more than hand- 
ing the old man the willow sticks, gathering clumps 
of grass for him, and watching the care with which 
he placed them, often changing the position of 
sticks and grass until satisfied that they formed a 
right appearance. And, truly, when he had done, 
the covering — save for the open space that he had 
left — was all one with the ground around it. He 
had me go down into the pit to see what I thought 
of it. I was surprised: seen from the outside, the 
covering had seemed to be one solid part of the 
butte summit; but looking at it from under, I could 
see more blue sky than sticks and grass. I crawled 
out very much disturbed: ‘‘The covering is not 
thick enough!” I cried. “It is like a spider web; 
everywhere open spaces in it. The eagle, when he 
comes, will look down and see me and fly away!” 

The old man laughed. “I thought you would say 
that!” he exclaimed. “But now, stand right at 
the edge of the pit, look down and see this!” And 
so saying, he shoved his whitish-colored leather 
wrap down through the open space. Look as I 
209 


Seizer of Eagles 

would I could not see it — see nothing below the 
grass that covered the sticks. I said that I could n’t 
understand it: the holes, the open spaces, had dis- 
appeared. 

Again the old man laughed. ‘‘The open spaces 
are still there, but you, nor the eagle when he 
comes, can see them, for you are looking from light 
down at darkness; all below the grass seems to be 
solid ground. But from the inside you look up at 
light, and all between you and it, every stick and 
every clump of grass and every space between 
them, is plain enough. And if you can see nothing 
below the covering, you who can see a little at 
night, much less can the eagle see below it: his eyes 
are for light only, the strong light of Sun; at night, 
even at dusk, he is as blind as though his eyes had 
been destroyed. Well, now bring out my wrap and 
we will go home.” 

Again I slid down into the pit, took up the wrap, 
and looked out through the covering and saw the 
old man standing close above and looking down. 

Don’t you see me.f^” I cried. 


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Seizer of Eagles 

^‘No, of course, I don’t!” he answered. 

I crawled out, satisfied at last that an eagle could 
not see me in there, but all the same it was very- 
strange that one could n’t see in one direction as 
well as in another. I puzzled over it all the way- 
home. 

Having now my pit all made, the stuffed wolf 
skin to put over it, I began on the next morning 
the four days of prayer — one day for each world 
direction — that all seizers of eagles go through 
before entering their pits. I did not know the 
prayers. Never before me had there been a seizer 
of eagles but was himself a Sun priest and, there- 
fore, able to do his own praying and sacrificing. 
So, day after day. Red Wings taught me to say 
these prayers, to sing the seizing-of-eagles songs, 
and he went with me into timber, where I sacrificed 
a fine pair of moccasins to Sun, and prayed for 
success in my coming work. On the afternoon of 
the fourth day, the old man had a sweat lodge 
built for us, and, inviting in several other Sun 
priests of the tribe, we had a long sweat, and all 


2II 


Seizer of Eagles 

present prayed the gods to keep me safe from eagle 
beaks and claws, and begged them to help me in all 
ways so that I could bring home many of the power- 
ful birds. Then, when the sacred Thunder Pipe 
was passed to me, I prayed Sun for success, and 
asked Ancient Raven, too, to do all that he could 
for me when I should go to he in my pit. 

At daylight, on the following morning, I got up 
and saddled two horses that I had kept picketed 
in camp all night. I was to have no morning meal, 
for seizers of eagles had to fast on the days that 
they lay in their pits. While waiting for Red 
, Wings to come to accompany me out to the butte, 
I gave my mother and grandmother instructions as 
the old man had told me to do. 

“Women, I now go to seize eagles,” I told them. 
“Until I return, you are not to touch an awl, nor 
needle, nor a rosebush, not even to pluck and eat 
rose berries. You must touch none of these, nor 
other things that are sharp, for if you do you may 
break what Sun power I have, and cause the eagle 
to stick his sharp claws into me. I ask that you 


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Seizer of Eagles 

pray for me, for my good success, not once but 
many times during the day!” 

As I finished, my mother was crying, and could 
do no more than nod her head for answer. 

But loud and deep my grandmother spoke up: 
*‘We shall do as you say! Go! And what little 
sense you have, use it this day! Pray the gods to 
give you the knowledge that you so much need! 
If you return with the black death starting in your 
veins, that will be through no fault of ours!” 

“Oh, cruel tongue!” my mother cried. 

“No! Wise tongue! I scold him for his own 
good!” the old woman sharply told her. 

Red Wings, outside, was calling me. He was 
already mounted, and had the stuffed wolf skin 
across his lap. We hurried up out of the valley and 
across the plain, and Sun was up only a little way 
into the blue when we arrived at the top of the 
butte. High above us and to the east, four eagles 
were circling around and around in the blue. They 
were a good sign for me, four, the sacred number, 
the old man said, as he laid the stuffed wolf upon 
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Seizer of Eagles 

the pit covering, midway its length, after putting 
into a slit in its side a huge piece of buffalo liver 
and allowing a small portion of it to protrude. He 
then had me slide down into the pit and, carefully 
covering the place where I had gone in, and giving 
me some last advice, went home leading my horse. 
He was to come for me at the close of the day. 

Was n’t I happy as I lay down in that pit and 
stared up at the blue sky through the spaces in the 
covering! And how I wished that Lone Man and 
the other Kaina Sun priests could see me! What 
they had said would require many winters to ac- 
complish, I had done in the short part of one sum- 
mer: fasted and obtained my sacred helper, 
counted coup upon the enemy, and, with the help 
of kind old Red Wings, become a seizer of eagles. 
And four eagles were circling around not far to the 
east! I began my prayers to Ancient Raven, to 
Sun, Night Light, and all the gods of the sky and 
the earth. Now and then I hummed the song of 
Ancient Wolf, bringer of good luck to the hunter. 

Sun trailed up and up into the blue, and when he 
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was passing straight above me I began to fear that 
no eagle would come to the stuffed wolf. I tried to 
get comfort from seizers-of-eagles’ tales that I had 
heard; of their lying in a pit for days before seizing 
one of the birds, but got no comfort; I wanted an 
eagle that day; felt that I could not go home with- 
out one. Then I pictured one of them alighting 
upon the stuffed wolf, and decided upon the open 
space through which I would reach up to seize him. 
But if I should fail to seize him! If with beak or 
claws he should put his black death into me! It 
had all seemed so easy to do, but now, face to face 
with it, I saw how very difficult and dangerous it 
was! And the waiting, waiting for the eagle to 
come, how trying that was! I now saw why so few 
men became seizers of eagles: they could n’t bear 
the long waiting and suspense in the pit, nor the 
thought of the eagle’s poison claws and beak. 
Enemies they gladly faced, to kill or be killed, but 
they feared the eagle! I prayed constantly now for 
help! 

It was mid-afternoon when, through an open 
2IS 


Seizer of Eagles 

space right over my head, I caught just a glimpse 
of an eagle sailing southward over me. I wondered 
if he would come to the stuffed wolf. I wanted to 
get up and be ready for him, but obeyed Red 
Wings’ instruction to lie perfectly still until the 
eagle began eating the liver. A long time passed — 
or what I thought was a long time — and I decided 
that the eagle had doubtless filled himself at some 
carcass of buffalo or antelope left by our hunters, 
and did not care for more food that day. I prayed 
Ancient Raven to turn him; to make him come to 
me. Oh, how hard I prayed — yes, the truth — 
at the same time with awful dread of the dangerous 
struggle that I might be bringing upon myself! 
Suddenly, I heard that awful ripping of the air 
that I knew so well was made only by a diving 
eagle; but I had no sight of him; he had made one 
down-swoop and sailed away, I thought. But, no! 
There was the dark shape of him as he stepped from 
the ground out upon the pit cover and up onto the 
stuffed wolf! Oh, how my heart beat then! 

I could now see him plainly, holding his head 
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Seizer of Eagles 

high and looking about in all directions/ 1 could 
even see his eyes — what mean, staring fire-eyes 
they were! — as he now and then turned his head 
sideways and looked down at the protruding end of 
the liver. He stuck his bill into it, tore out a piece 
and swallowed it with a loud, snapping noise, 
looked all around again, and then began eating as 
though he were very hungry. Now was my time 
come! Hopeful, fearful, more excited than I had 
been when facing my Assiniboine enemy, I slowly, 
silently arose until I was crouching right close to 
him. His back was to me. 

I remembered Red Wings’ caution, that I must 
not attempt to seize his lower legs, for if I did he 
would be rising at the same time and I should be 
wounded by his claws. Slowly I raised my hands 
to a space between two sticks that was so thinly 
covered with grass that I could see all through it, 
and then drawing a full breath, with sudden up- 
thrust of arms and lunge of body, I attempted to 
seize his legs close up to his body. But quick as I 
was, he was already rising as my arms burst through 
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Seizer of Eagles 

the cover, and I made my seizure at the middle 
joints of his legs. He nearly lifted me from the 
ground as he furiously beat the air with his great 
wings. I hung on, began pulling him down, and 
down with him came the stuffed wolf and some of 
the covering sticks and grass. Time and again he 
tried to stab my face with his beak, and might have 
done so but for the stuffed wolf that lay straight 
across my wrists and kept him well off from me. 
He struggled so hard that he soon became tired 
and lay with his breast to the ground. I then sud- 
denly got my knees upon his back, resting all my 
weight upon them; he began to gasp for breath, 
could n’t get it, and after some fluttering of wings 
and trembling of body, his head slowly sank to the 
ground and he died ! 

I tossed him up out of the pit, sprang out and 
shouted the victory song, gave thankful prayer to 
Ancient Raven, promised Sun a sacrifice, and at 
last sat down and smoothed out the feathers that 
had been rumpled in my fight with the bird. The 
afternoon was but half gone. I could not wait for 
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Seizer of Eagles 

Red Wings to come for me. I got my rifle from the 
pit, slung the eagle upon my back, and went home- 
ward across the plain as fast as I could go. 

When I arrived at the edge of the great camp, 
only the thought of Lone Man, as I had seen him 
bringing an eagle home, kept me from doing what 
I so much wanted to do: dance and sing my way 
across it to my lodge. But, anyhow, I got praise 
enough from the people as I passed them, many 
men stopping me to admire the tail feathers of my 
seizure, and some to make me offers for them. I 
answered that I did not care to trade them at that 
time. And so, at last, I came to my own lodge, 
and got great praise from my mother and Red 
Wings, who was just starting to go out to the butte 
after me. Then came my grandmother with a 
travois horse drawing wood, and when she saw me 
with the eagle she ran and embraced me, and 
shouted my name, just as though I had counted 
coup upon an enemy. 

So began my seizing of eagles. I seized four 
more at that Sun-favored butte while we remained 


219 


Seizer of Eagles 

in the Arrow River valley, and then we moved 
south to Yellow River, making camp where Hat 
Water Creek puts into it. We were there, of course, 
right at the foot of the Yellow Mountains, so named 
in the long ago because our people found yellow 
paint earth in them. Nowhere else in our great 
country was game of all kinds so plentiful as we 
always found it in this Yellow River valley and in 
the plains on the one side and the mountains on the 
other side of it. I hunted but one day after we 
arrived there, and killed buffalo, elk, and deer, 
enough meat to last Red Wings’ lodge, and mine, 
for a long time. That done, on the following day I 
commenced digging an eagle pit on top of the end 
of a high and narrow ridge extending out into the 
valley from the mountains, and quite a long way 
below camp. I finished the pit, covering and all, 
in three days. On the seventh day, the last of four 
days’ fasting. Red Wings gave a sacred sweat 
lodge for me, with the ceremony of his Thunder 
Pipe, and on the next day I went to the pit with 
my stuffed wolf skin, and properly placed it upon 


220 


Seizer of Eagles 

the covering after stuffing half of a bull’s liver into 
its side. 

On this morning, when leaving camp — I went 
on foot, the stuffed wolf upon my shoulder — 
Nipoka was so anxious to go with me that I said to 
myself: “Well, why not let him come along.f^” I 
snapped thumb and finger to him, and how glad 
he was that he could go! He tried time and again 
to jump high to reach my face and lick it; and kept 
right at my heels through camp and down the 
trail to the butte. I had been training him eve- 
nings, and what other spare time I had, and he had 
learned to do as I told him, especially to lie down 
and not move until I hissed. He feared all people 
except the three of our lodge — would not even 
be friendly with Red Wings, who often visited us, 
and when he saw any one coming to our lodge he 
would aways sneak in beside me, or my mother if 
I was not home, and there remain until the visitor 
went away. 

So, now, having got down into the pit with 
Nipoka, and carefully covered my place of en- 


221 


Seizer of Eagles 

trance, I spread my wrap and had him lie down be- 
side me. He soon went to sleep. But not for long; 
in the dim light that there was, I saw him suddenly 
raise his head and sniff the air with his wet, black 
nose, and wondered what it could be that he 
smelled. Then he got up, sniffed again and again, 
his neck hair all bristling forward, and began un- 
easily to lift one forefoot and the other, and to look 
at the walls of the pit as though he wanted to es- 
cape from it. He was acting just as he did when 
any one approached our lodge. I said to myself 
that he now smelled some one, and that one must 
be an enemy, for all our hunters knew that I was 
watching for eagles upon this butte, and would 
not come near it. 

Seizing my rifle, I got up, slowly laid aside the 
covering of the pit entrance, and cautiously looked 
out. I should have explained that this ridge slop- 
ing down from the mountain was covered with pine 
timber excepting the last end of it, which rose 
steeply up. In other words, the end of the ridge 
was my butte. So, looking out from my pit down 


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Seizer of Eagles 

the ridge toward the mountain, I saw — not more 
than fifty steps off — two men sneaking up toward 
me on hands and knees and half-hidden by the 
sagebrush. Carefully, slowly, I raised my rifle, 
rested it upon the edge of the pit, took careful aim 
at the leader of the two, and when I fired he gave 
a screech and sprang up, raised his hands and fell 
over backward. As he dropped, the other man 
sprang to his feet, and with one look at his friend 
turned and ran, and before I had my gun half-re- 
loaded he was in the timber and out of my sight. I 
noticed that he carried bow and shield, but no gun. 

From the way in which my enemy had fallen 
backward, I was sure that he was dead; but I 
was n’t going to take any chances with him. Nip- 
oka was excitedly clawing my side and back, want- 
ing to get out of the pit ; he had learned that when I 
fired my rifle there was meat ahead for him. After 
reloading, I raised him and let him out, and he ran 
a little way down the butte, stopped, sniffed the 
air, and hurried back, looking over his roach as 
he came. The man down in the timber was much 


223 


Seizer of Eagles 

too far away to do me any harm with his arrows. 
I got out of the pit and, with rifle held ready, raised 
up onto my knees and saw a part of the man I had 
shot, the soles of his moccasined feet, and his legs; 
the rest of him was hidden from me in the sage- 
brush. I watched those feet pointing up to the 
sky; they never moved. I stood up and could then 
see all of the man, flat upon his back, one arm out- 
stretched. Without doubt he was dead. I ran to him 
and found that his weapon was also bow and arrows. 
I took them and the otter skin bow-case that was 
on his back, the parfleche cylinder containing his 
war clothes, and his shield which lay near him in 
the brush. I noticed that he was a man of about 
thirty winters, and of fine face. His hair was 
neatly braided, except a clipped roach of it rising 
straight up from his forehead. I had often heard 
that the Crows dressed their hair that way. 

I had no thought that the men were just a war 
party of two; they were, I believed, scouts of a large 
party of Crows that was somewhere near, and 
would soon be coming at me from the timber. I 
224 


Seizer of Eagles 

took up my enemy things and started for home on 
the run. When about halfway there I met a hunter, 
and as soon as I had told him about my fight, 
he took me up behind him on his horse and we 
were soon in camp, spreading word of a Crow war 
party somewhere below. Nipoka, who had closely 
followed me in, made a dive into our lodge and hid 
behind my couch, much frightened by the shout- 
ing of the men calling for their horses. 

I had but time to drop my coup things before 
my mother, and tell her what I had done, and was 
off with our men, riding a horse that one of them 
loaned me. We searched the country until night, 
but found no enemies nor signs of them, not even of 
the man who had run from me into the timber. 
Upon our way home, I took up my stuffed wolf 
skin; never again would I attempt to seize eagles 
upon that mountain butte. That evening the 
chiefs gathered in Lone Walker’s Lodge and had 
me tell them all about my experience upon the 
butte, and I gave Nipoka credit for my being there 
with them. Had he not told me by his actions 
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Seizer of Eagles 

that I was in danger, the two Crows would have 
sneaked right up to my eagle pit and killed me in it ! 

After resting a day, I went north the next morn- 
ing and began digging a new pit in the top of a butte 
well out upon the plain. There, as the days passed, 
I had good success; not once did an eagle succeed 
in even scratching me as I seized him, drew him 
down into the pit, and crushed the life from his body. 

It was in the beginning of the Berries-Ripe 
moon that, coming home late one evening, my 
grandmother met me in the doorway of our lodge, 
threw her arms around me, and, half-crying, and 
half-laughing, told me that the Kaina were com- 
ing, that they would be with us on the morrow, 
and would, of course, build with us the great lodge 
that had been promised to Sun. And there, she 
said, I should receive my new name. Well, that 
was good news. Some of our hunters had that day 
met hunters from the Kaina camp, north on Wolf 
Creek, and learned from them that the tribe was 
upon its way to join us. 

On the following morning I went out to my eagle 
226 


Seizer of Eagles 

pit and got my stuffed wolf skin, well knowing that 
I should have to remain in camp for some time to 
come. Late in the afternoon the Kaina trailed in 
and made camp just below us. Then what visiting 
there was! — always a number of my grand- 
mother’s old friends in our lodge, what time she 
was not in the lower camp. 

Twenty of the Pikuni women had vowed to 
build Sun’s lodge that summer, and more than 
that number of the Kaina women. On the day 
that it was completed, I hung upon its center pole 
the war clothes that I had taken from my Crow 
enemy, and prayed long to Sun, and told him that 
I would now paint my body as I had promised. I 
painted my face black, and unbraided my hair. 
Red Wings cut two slits in the skin of my back and 
fastened the end of a rope in the strip between 
them, and attached a bull buffalo skull to the other 
end of it. For two days, with many rests, but fast- 
ing all the time, I endured the pain of dragging that 
skull about in and around the sacred lodge, pray- 
ing Sun all the time to pity me and give me full life. 

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Seizer of Eagles 

Toward evening of the second day the rope tore 
out from my back and I was free, but so weak that 
I could hardly stand. Half-cariying me, my mother 
and grandmother got me home and fed me, and 
told me that Red Wings had everything arranged 
for me to count my coups the next day. 

I counted them at noon, beginning with my 
killing of the real bear and ending with the taking 
of the weapons of my Crow enemy. And every 
time I ended counting a coup, the people shouted 
praise of me, and the drummers banged their big 
drums. After counting my last coup, I found that 
I was trembling. I had not thought that praise 
would affect me that way. But more was to come. 
Stepping out from the great circle of the people, 
old, blind Mountain Chief, Kaina Sun priest, he 
who had told me so shortly that eagle-seizers kept 
their knowledge to themselves, he shouted to me : 
‘‘Avenger of our dead, well have you earned the 
right to a warrior name ! I give you a great name ! 
Old Sun, seizer of eagles, I pray that you live a 
full life, and to great age!” 

228 


Seizer of Eagles 

Oh, how the people then shouted my name ; my 
new name ! It seemed to me that the Kaina women, 
especially, and some men, too, were gone mad with 
praise of that name! But that was not all: came 
now Red Wings’ sits-beside-him woman and 
handed me the robe of my white bull, softly tanned, 
and upon the flesh side painted in the center with a 
big figure of Sun. I took it, carried it into the great 
lodge, all the Kaina and Pikuni chiefs and priests 
following me, and offering it to Sun, hung it upon 
the center pole. Then Red Wings prayed Sun to 
accept it, prayed him to give every man, woman, 
and child of us long and happy life. Hail we were 
a happy people that day, and for long afterward. 

Well, we passed that winter in the southern end 
of our country, and, except in very cold weather, 
I continued my work of seizing eagles, and trading 
the tail feathers for beaver skins and horses, mostly 
the skins. So it was that, in the following spring 
when we returned to the Long Knives’ fort to 
trade, I went into it just as I had believed I should, 
riding a fine horse, and my mother and grand- 
229 


Seizer of Eagles 

mother also upon good horses, and driving others 
loaded with packs of beaver skins and fine tanned 
robes. Gladly I paid my debt to Long Hair. And 
happy I was, standing in the trade room and watch- 
ing my women buy all that they desired, and 
blankets for me. So began full life for me, winters 
and winters of happy wanderings with the Pikuni, 
success in the hunt, in the seizing of eagles, and in 
war upon our enemies. And so my story ends. 


THE END 



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Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: 



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